The Magic You Won't Ever See
by kuchee
Summary: The most unlikely pair at Shiz University find themselves having to share a room in their final year before graduation. But despite trying beginnings, Elphaba and Galinda find friendship in the last place either of them would have guessed. A modern college AU, from loathing to loving and everything in between.
1. Prologue

Galinda rolls her suitcases into the dank little dorm room. For the very first time, she actually isn't looking forward to another year here at Shiz. This room, for one, looks like an honest to God homeless shelter (the smell of weed included) but she concedes that she can't really expect any better after applying to dorms only a week before the start of the semester.

She scans her eyes across the miserable sight and slumps down on the bed closest to the window. At the very least she needs to be able to get some fresh air.

So, it's been a week since Fiyero broke up with her. She sighs. Two weeks since he leaned awkwardly on their shared kitchen counter, eyes shifting everywhere but on her, and said " _You have to admit it, babe, it's just not working out between us_." Galinda had just got back from spending the summer with her parents, and she stood in the doorway, speechless. Nothing more than a brief hello before he broke it. She hadn't even had the chance to put her keys back into her purse.

They were supposed to be trying harder, for goodness sake, that's what he'd blabbered to her over the phone just days earlier. They were _supposed_ to follow a certain path. Galinda wouldn't admit it out loud, but there are… expectations she sets for herself. It's not like anyone gets married straight out of school these days, but she's always had a certain idea of what her college experience would yield.

And for a good three years, it looked like it was going that way.

Soon enough after that day, she had found the culprit: a string of horribly flirty texts on his phone (what kind of guy leaves evidence like _that_ out in plain sight - she's almost relieved she isn't with someone that dumb anymore), followed by a feeble explanation from Fiyero. Galinda had felt numb. It was that weird green girl, of all the possible girls in the whole university - oh, what was her name? Eugenia? Edith? Something ridiculous and drab like that. She read those messages over and over again. She could practically hear Fiyero's simpering, even through those tiny little bubbles of text. _Of course I'll be at the demonstration. We have to do something for those underpaid janitors._

Galinda rolls her eyes. Like Fiyero has _ever_ cared about anyone except himself, let alone the freaking cleaners on campus. Clearly, he wanted to be with her enough to pretend.

Had he ever done anything like that for her?

She scoffs at the thought, the fact that she was foolish enough to think he cared about her. It's not even about love, really, because she can deal with that. She's had more than her fair share of clueless boys professing their love to her to know not to let it get to her. No way. That's not it at all.

It's the sheer _disrespect_ \- who decides to kick someone out of a shared apartment the week before classes start? What about her studies? That's the part that hurts her most - that he would be careless enough not to give a crap about the logistics of her life.

She had gone to her parents immediately, of course, but not even they could help on such short notice. Shiz isn't really overflowing with properties, being the tiny college town that it is. So - here she is again. Back in these glorious dormitories, something she hasn't had the pleasure of experiencing since her first year.

Galinda tries not to pout, staring down into the mucky grey carpet. (Is it supposed to be blue?) There's a spider trying to crawl in vain up the leg of the bed frame. She could cry. Two years of apartment maintenance between herself and Fiyero have certainly set her standards very ( _very_ ) high.

No matter. She needs to get herself together. She's got two more semesters left of her degree. MBA, diverse enough. Then she can get out into the real world. Not that she won't miss the thriving social scene here at Shiz, but she's excited to be in the buzz and glamour of the city, to actually be in the midst of things. She's already been working at Mom and Pop's hotel up in the Uplands, and Daddy had said that this year, if she really wanted to prove her worth, he'd put her in charge of events management over winter break. With experience like that on her resume off the bat, from where anyone with half a mind for these things would know is the best country hotel _anywhere_ , she's going to have the perfect headstart when she gets to Emerald City.

So. Focus. She smooths down her dress, slips off her summer wedges and wriggles her toes in the air - better get out some slippers first, before she steps on this carpet.

And the first thing after she unpacks - decorate this hovel.

There's a key jostling in the door.

Galinda looks up expectantly - she's expecting some unkempt first year, someone who surely doesn't care enough if they left their room allocation late enough to get a dump like this.

A wary-looking green face peeks through the door. She only looks alarmed for a second, before her face is quickly set again. "This is room 306, right?"

No. Way.

Galinda's heart sinks.

She narrows her eyes immediately. "Yes, it is."

The girl steps forward and through, dragging a massive fabric suitcase behind her with difficulty. It looks ancient.

"I - it looks like we have to room together." She sets her backpack down decisively on the other bed. It's the same dull black as her jacket and her jeans and her hair, but adorned with a litter of highly mismatched little badges. "I'm Elphaba, by the way."

Right. Elphaba, that was it. Well, she seems very matter-of-fact.

"Galinda." She replies coolly, forcing herself not to grit her teeth. She gladly lets Elphaba simmer in the awkwardness - they both know that she already knew Galinda's name.

"I heard - I mean, aren't you living off campus? You are in your final year, right?"

Elphaba shifts and scratches her forehead briefly. "Well - I was. But my sister is starting this year, and my dad wants me to stay on campus so I can keep an eye on her better." She adds bluntly, "She's in a wheelchair," when Galinda looks dumbly at her.

"Huh." Galinda says, nodding. She doesn't sound as shrill as Galinda always thought. Her voice is low - rich, mumbling almost, like she's boxing herself in. Well, the most Galinda had heard of it before now was screeching something or the other during Students' Union meetings. By now knows better than to spend her time getting mixed up in those.

The air feels stagnant, and not just because of how damp this little room is. Galinda shifts on her bed and clears her throat.

"Well, I hope we get through the year without killing each other!" She chirps. Her laugh is icier than she would like, icier than she can control at the moment.

"Yeah," Elphaba returns her sentiment with a quick smile that looks painfully forced. "Nice to meet you, I guess."

So they _aren't_ going to address the elephant in the room?

So be it. Galinda prides herself on keeping a friendly exterior, and if she can do it in the presence of the person who _stole_ her boyfriend, well, all the more credit to her.

"Who knows, maybe we'll even be friends," she says, voice syrupy.

Elphaba turns and nods shortly to her from where she's digging into the main compartment of her backpack, and - what was _that_? - does she think Galinda can't see her rolling her eyes?

Ugh. She grabs her keys and shoves them into her side bag, slipping the long leather strap over her shoulder. In the space of ten seconds, she finds herself out of the room, and having skipped almost all the way down to the bottom of the steps, out into the reception.

She looks down at her feet, and sees two little cutesy cat faces staring back at her over shiny plastic. Damn it. She forgot to change back into her outdoor shoes.

She fists her hands with half a sob, before shaking her head and taking her phone out.

 _12.14PM. August 29th_.

Five notifications, three new messages (all from Mommy), and a reminder to hand in her re-registration forms.

Galinda jams the home button. She needs to change her background from this stupid selfie with Fiyero. She takes a deep breath. Okay. Shopping - that will cheer her up. She knows the perfect little stationery boutique that's going to help liven up that hideous room.

She'll graduate in May. It's a nine-month lease. She can do it.


	2. Chapter 2

Elphaba stared down at her timetable for the semester in front of her, trying to angle her laptop so the sun didn't obstruct her view of the screen. She was in the library, sitting by one of those arching windows that reached from the desks right up to the high ceiling. Normally she would appreciate the grand, gothic look of it all, but not when the afternoon sun was glaring its goodbye. She wished there was somewhere else to go, but few places were likely to be open before the start of the semester tomorrow.

She would rather be in her room, except - well.

Galinda Upland had taken over it, decorating. She didn't ask Elphaba to leave or anything, but Elphaba knew how to take a hint, however brutish her roommate clearly thought she was.

After unpacking, she had gone over to the dorms on the other side of the campus to check on Nessa - the shiniest, newest, and most expensive ones, that is, so _of course_ her dad was paying for Nessa to stay in them. He had already left: Elphaba received the perfunctory text message she was expecting only a couple of hours ago. _Leaving now. Take care of your sister, Elphaba. See you for Christmas._

Nessa seemed to have settled in well enough. The very first ground-floor room from the entrance was a designated wheelchair-friendly room, and accordingly, very spacious and very _single_. As Elphaba entered she had noted the wide hallways and carpeted floors with some interest; it looked more like an ultra-modern Emerald City hotel for yuppies than a student dorm. It occurred to her that in three whole years she had never stepped foot inside the dormitories in this square, had never had a friend that would bring her here.

 _Clearly_ , this was the hall for rich international students and only the most well-to-do Ozian students. She supposed, despite their pretty ordinary background, her sister would definitely count given the way her dad went out of his way for her.

Her relationship with Nessa wasn't bad by any means. They were as friendly as any pair of siblings, as far as she was concerned. She felt bad for the kid, honestly, because the only thing she could imagine more tedious than the indifferent way her dad treated her was the downright overbearing way he treated Nessa. This morning, for instance - he wouldn't let her go to the pharmacy at the bottom of their street alone just to pick up some travel sickness tablets before they set off for Shiz. Elphaba did her own damn groceries when she was thirteen.

She knew that she was Nessa's one respite, the only one in that house (or at all) that treated her the way teenagers want to be treated. Nessa, in turn, was one of the only people she had ever known that was nice to her. _Actually_ nice, not pitiful or wary or in any other way distant. Someone who saw past her skin and her caustic manner, though she knew that that probably only happened out of sheer exposure. Still, for that she could forgive her sister's infuriating naivete, her bad taste in music and even her innocent obliviousness towards the gap in the way their father treated the two of them.

Nessa would be just fine here, was what her dad was unwilling to realise. Elphaba, on the other hand… _Looking after Nessa_ , in her father's terms, meant the same thing they did when they were in high school - going with her sister to parties, tagging along on tedious nights out in town, and whatever else Nessa decided suited her fancy. Elphaba couldn't help but resent the callous dismissal of her own priorities. Why should her dad care how she wanted to spend her free time? Where she wanted to go? Who she wanted to mix with?

Not that she had a lot going on in that department. Of course, there were the people in her clubs, the ones that she read with or went to protests with. A few coursemates that she made idle chat with on a regular basis over the years. But that's all those relationships were. Group chats organising events, heated conversations over coffee over this article or that book, about how they were going to email that organisation or boycott this speaker.

She never had what seemed to come so naturally to everyone else. She knew she wasn't the most approachable person, but - everyone else around her seemed to have managed to cultivate some real kinds of friendship.

And she was highly aware of the fact, more than she wanted to be. She would watch people. Giggling on their phones when they should be listening in the middle of lectures, meeting in the spare moments between classes for lunch. She had no one for that. No one that would come to the library at midnight with her to have philosophical conversations when they should both be studying. No one to sit in the cafeteria and watch stupid videos with. Certainly no one to surprise her with a gift on her birthday, to sit in some dorm hallway with a drink at 2AM sharing their dreams and worries.

She didn't _need_ that, of course. Never had, her whole life.

But wouldn't it be nice?

Hell, the closest she got to a compliment outside of her academic and extracurricular work was the occasional breathless art student - and they always _were_ art students - rushing up to tell her how brave and inspirational she was just for being green. She snorted.

Still, she wasn't sorry that the closest friend she had in Shiz was her academic tutor. She was not going to fake it for anyone.

It was getting dark now. She should probably get back to her room. She shut the lid of her laptop and gathered her things, but not before scrawling the identification codes for the coming week's books on the back of her hand with a ballpoint so she could look for them on her way out. It was a good thing she liked reading, she thought absently, because apparently, that's all a sociology degree was.

Outside, the air was still warm. Elphaba didn't rush the walk the back to her room. The one silver lining about that dull place and having to share it with Galinda Upland, was that she had the _pleasure_ of witnessing someone like Galinda having to make use of a modest space like that. Hopefully the taste of plebeian life would soon knock her down a few notches.

When Elphaba opened the door to her room, the first thing she noticed was that the place already looked different. In Galinda's corner of the room, a massive, fluffy rug adorned the space next to her bed. It was garish and garishly pink, looking like the corpse of some animal, if Elphaba had to tell the truth. A string of pale pink fairy lights was strung across the back wall of the room, across the top of both their beds. Galinda had one end in her hand, and looked like she was furiously trying to pull down some sticky tack around it.

"It would look weird, just on one side of the room," she said by way of explanation, without looking behind her. Her voice was more even than the tension in her shoulders would suggest. "I hope you don't mind," she added, sounding like she couldn't care less if Elphaba minded.

Elphaba felt on edge.

She wasn't going to say _anything_ , actually, because it _did_ look nice. The lights were bright and pretty, the white glow of each little bulb circled by a halo of soft pink. Now that there was some liveliness in the room, she realised how gloomy the place had felt without it.

But it was Galinda's _tone_ \- dry, matter-of-fact, because _of course_ Elphaba couldn't have anything to say about it, what opinion could she give, what sense could someone drab like her _possibly_ have about the aesthetics of a place?

Elphaba stretched out the tautness clamping up her shoulders, found her eyes scanning quickly around the room for an easy pick. Galinda's haul appeared to include a couple of table lamps (pink), and a small assortment of storage boxes, also pink, but shiny and modern and quaintly oval-shaped. A couple of them were large, one empty except for another nesting inside it, but Elphaba could see the other full of shoes peeking out from under her bed. The smallest of them were sitting on her tiny desk (identical to Elphaba's), taking up most of it, and holding what looked like an enormous set of makeup brushes, matching rose-gold handles glinting in the glow of the fairy lights.

She said bitingly, "You know, most people leave some space for books and pens and that kind of thing."

When Galinda turned and snatched a glance up at her, and Elphaba saw the redness in her eyes, she immediately wished she had bitten her tongue.

...

It was a good first week back, all in all. Elphaba settled back into the rhythm of classes easily. Her routine hadn't really changed much in three years, so it wasn't too hard, and the daily catch-up with Nessa face to face cheered her up more than she thought it would. She had gone to see Dr Dillamond on Tuesday and he had given her the final go-ahead on her dissertation project with such praise that it kept her glowing for days. Galinda, even, hadn't given her much grief. They hardly saw each other; every time she was in the room Galinda seemed to be elsewhere, and vice versa. Elphaba wasn't sure herself whether they were doing it on purpose, like some kind of silent mutual agreement.

To tell the truth, she felt more than a little wary around her new roommate. Nothing she could glean about Galinda told her they could have _anything_ in common.

Elphaba bent to adjust the velcro on her shoe. It was just past noon, Friday, and she had nothing else on her timetable. Next stop: a good, strong peppermint tea from the campus cafe before heading to the library.

"Elphaba!"

She turned around at her name and almost walked right into a beaming Fiyero. He was holding a steaming coffee cup, backpack slung easily over one shoulder. She took an instinctive step back, feeling a little gormless already.

He saw it, and immediately his smile became more bashful. "How was your summer?"

"Fiyero! Hi. It was fine, nothing special. How about you?"

"Uh, good and bad." He said. "I'm surprised I haven't seen you all week!"

"Well, it's not like we have the same classes or anything..." Elphaba said with a loud laugh. Little too loud. Why did she feel so awkward?

A brief moment of silence. Elphaba reflexively set her gaze somewhere behind Fiyero's head. God, she was _not_ equipped for this.

"So, um… I actually read a couple of those books from that list you gave me…"

Elphaba's eyes widened. "Really?"

She didn't expect _that_. Considering that when they first started talking, sometime in the final few weeks of the last academic year, he had actually complained about having to read a _twenty-page_ chapter for one of his classes.

"Yeah - actually, I wanted to talk about that. And - I dunno, catch up. I was thinking coffee sometime this weekend?"

"You _liked_ reading them?"

This was getting so bizarre.

"Yeah. I spent so long, just - like, _thinking_ about it. I can't believe I never thought about the _world_ before. That was the good part of my summer actually. Discovering all this stuff." He looked earnest.

She was really curious now. "And the… bad part?"

He scratched the back of his neck, arms taut under the flimsy white layer of his t-shirt. Trust Fiyero to be dressed for the beach even with autumn fast approaching. She forced herself to look at his face.

His voice was quieter when he spoke again. "Uh. I broke up with my girlfriend. Just before we came back, actually."

"Your girlfriend? Who were you -?"

The realisation hit her suddenly. Galinda, her face, her hands with those lights in them. Of course. Shit.

She remembered only now that had seen them together around campus, many times.

Fiyero's voice became even quieter, if that was possible. He looked embarrassed. "Galinda Upland? You know - Management? Lots of pastels? Pretty popular."

Elphaba nodded automatically, decided on the spot to omit the fact that _yes, she knew, in fact, he was talking to none other than her roommate_. She felt guilt pool in her stomach all of a sudden, and then she felt annoyed for feeling guilty.

She didn't know at whom, though.

"I just feel bad because I think I left her with no place to stay… she was living with me in my apartment, you know, so..."

Oh, god.

"Well, I'm sorry," She said, slowly and sincerely. Her mind was full of pink fairy lights.

Fiyero shook his head dismissively, suddenly pensive. It _was_ a weird look on him. But not entirely unwelcome. "Don't worry about it. It wasn't gonna work," he smiled at her. Touched her arm.

She felt warm (and not just warm in her cheeks - she was _touched_ ). He was clearly trying to make sure not to drag her mood down with his own.

Elphaba felt dizzy with something - had anyone ever done that for her before?

"I have a lecture now, but - coffee. Remember. Would Saturday be good? I'll text you!" And then before she could finish a smile and a nod he was gone, as quick as he came, steps practically leaping.

...

The weekend was perfect. They went to one of those tiny hipster cafes, far away from campus (the kind Elphaba secretly loved, despite herself, and despite what she could say about the gentrification courtesy of the graduates in this town) and talked for a good few hours. Fiyero wasn't the most - _aware_ person, but he was clearly trying. They talked not only about the books, but their studies, what they did over the summer. Even their parents. Elphaba steered away from hobbies, however, because that naturally led to talking about friends.

She didn't want to think about that when she was having such a good time. She didn't care about being alone, but she wasn't sure yet what someone like Fiyero would think of it.

But Fiyero was learning about her. And more than that - he was _looking_.

Looking at her in a way that made her want to be glued in her seat and run far away all in the same instant. She tried hard to feel _normal_ about it but she couldn't help that she felt strange - uncomfortable, even. No one had ever had those kind of intentions towards her - and that's _if_ she was reading him right, and she couldn't blame herself for wondering and second-guessing herself about whether she even _was_ reading him right.

She was half-relieved when it was over, to tell the truth.

And now she was standing at the edge of Galinda's corpse rug, staring at her reflection in the full-length mirror that her dear roommate had (admirably, she admitted) managed to fix on the wall between her desk and her wardrobe. It was against regulations, but a glance around her belongings assured Elphaba that Galinda's parents would probably be paying for the damage without a thought.

She had felt - wrong, somehow. To be inhabiting her body and her face when someone was looking at her like _that_. It was too new and too strange and to be honest, a little unbelievable. Elphaba didn't really believe the way she looked mattered, and she certainly wasn't someone who saw sense in spending time and money on her appearance. She wasn't at university to get boys. She hadn't expected any attention like that, and had good reason not to, so the fact that she _was_ receiving it came as more of a surprise than if the idea had been on her mind.

She looked at her gawky posture, her arms dangling under her black t-shirt. It was one of Nessa's, but she said she didn't like how ill-fitting it was on her. Her face, green, and familiar as her own name. She had definitely got the pitiful " _you don't look bad for someone with a condition like that_ " more times than she could count, usually some sweet misguided girl in her high school classes trying to make her somehow feel _better_ with unwanted attention. But it's not like they ever became friends over it.

She looked at her hair laying lank on her shoulders. It was long, and she liked that. Felt like it helped her avoid having to try in other ways, like _make-up_ , for example. And she was thankful at least that it was darker than the rest of her family's, dark enough to sort-of match her skin tone, like some little silver lining. Her eyes, her long nose, her mouth. The set of her brow, and the sharpness in her jaw. She closed her eyes and opened them and closed them. She was fine. She wasn't fine. She was thirteen - and if she stared hard enough, if she _really_ stared, she could make the edges of her vision blur; if she focused her mind on her features long enough, she could imagine it. Eyes, nose, lips - reflected back at her - set in a different face, a regular face, regular skin. She didn't care what colour, how light or dark or oily or pimply.

A key jammed harshly in the lock, followed by Galinda swinging the door open.

Elphaba jumped backwards. She tried hard to look like she was doing something else. She felt suddenly, _really_ self-conscious, anger and embarrassment at herself rising and mixing fast in her head. Maybe entertaining the thought of dating someone was _not_ worth it, if it meant she was suddenly going to care about this crap that she thought she had left far away in her middle school days.

Galinda squinted at her, taking in her position, trapping Elphaba in the mirror.

"You _can_ use it, you know." She said carefully, like Elphaba was a small child that needed explanation. She whispered under her breath, "God knows you could do with a little bit of looking in the mirror."

Elphaba stared at her, her blood boiling. And in less than a moment, something strange happened - Galinda seemed to catch herself too, because she suddenly tensed and stood straight, mouth gaping like a fish. Her eyes widened. She clearly hadn't meant to say anything.

Elphaba tore away her gaze, and curled her fists to make sure they were there and she had heard everything right. She could feel her pulse in her fingertips. She wasn't going to make a staring match out of it. She waited an awkward few seconds for an apology but Galinda didn't give her one. She seemed to retreat, looking somewhat guilty and self-defeated, busying herself with unbuttoning her coat and one-handedly checking her phone.

Elphaba tried to blink away the anger. She was foolish. To think that just two days ago she was feeling _sorry_ for this girl, even thinking about postponing whatever the hell she was doing with Fiyero just for her sake, for the sake of a tolerable living arrangement. She smiled bitterly at herself. She should have known.

She could easily predict what was running through Galinda's mind right now. Bitter that her ex was into someone like Elphaba, someone who looked like her and talked like her and gave a shit about the things she did; in a nutshell, someone with every characteristic the opposite of Galinda's. Her anger morphed into smugness before she could help it.

To hell with a tolerable living arrangement, and to hell with her own doubts and to hell with that self-pitying bullshit. She was going to show Galinda what she was worth.


	3. Chapter 3

When Galinda opened her eyes on a late September morning she was greeted by the strangest sight: her roommate, _humming._

Elphaba never hummed. Or sang, or skipped, or any act of idle fidgeting that you could expect someone to slip into in the comfort of their own room. Granted, it's not like they saw each other in here much - in all honesty, Galinda _had_ been avoiding her a little. It wasn't hard, given their drastically different schedules (she had hers printed and pinned on her wall, glassy pink push pins being put to good use). Sociology, or whatever - apparently not as useless as she thought, considering how busy it kept her roommate.

They were civil when they saw each other. Certain words had to be exchanged out of necessity: _leave the vacuum cleaner out, I need the bathroom early tomorrow, can you shut the curtains before bed?_ Others out of politeness: _how was your day?_ The conversation was never deeper than that, and each time they silently rubbed each other the wrong way (Fiyero being a key figure here) it annoyed Galinda enough to stop her trying for a few days.

Normally she would jump at the chance of conversation, the buzz of getting to charm yet another person making her glow, but Fiyero stuck in her mind. It was infuriating. Part of her wished she never had to see that green face (or his) yet part of her wanted to know every detail of the affair. Elphaba would come back to the room sometimes, a bizarre hint of a smile on her face or a spring in her step. She would type fast on her phone, her laptop, hold back her expression carefully as her eyes flitted across the screen. Was she talking to him? What on earth could they possibly be talking about? Surely Fiyero wasn't keeping up that ridiculous _I'm-socially-aware_ nonsense this long?

She rubbed sleep out of her eyes, pushed her covers to the side and watched. Elphaba was brushing her hair now. Galinda's mind raced to each next step in her routine, and Elphaba's actions followed: she parted her hair and started braiding it over her shoulder. Next, she would pull one of the hair ties off her wrist, tie the end of her single braid. Then tuck loose strands behind her ears. Put her glasses on from where she kept them on the desk, slip on her boots, get that ratty backpack off the hook, or sometimes her leather side bag, and then she would be gone, usually with a graceless slam of the door. On days when Galinda woke after her roommate, which wasn't often considering the number of morning classes she had, this was the scene she saw.

It would be too strong to say her roommate's scant routine resulted in a _fashion disaster,_ because really, it didn't. Elphaba just looked like someone who didn't care how they looked, nothing worse. Like a kid would, or a boy, maybe. It was just that _colour_. It sure as hell was quicker than Galinda's morning drill. She never saw Elphaba put on makeup, never saw her do anything with her hair besides that braid. She had timed it once, and from brushing her teeth to doing her braid, it was hardly ten minutes.

Galinda was a little jealous, honestly. It must have been freeing, to not care.

She cringed at the thought of leaving the house looking like that. Not in a million years. It wasn't about being _seen_ \- about guys, or other girls, or anyone. She had to look perfect for herself, because that was the standard she set for herself. Her image was her best way of sharing herself, of interacting with the world. Was there anything so wrong about that?

But Fiyero. Elphaba and Fiyero. Knowing all _that_ was going on was the proof of how her effort on her appearance was _wasted_ where she assumed it had mattered the most. That was a different feeling, and it was a little like the carpet was being swept out from under her feet.

Elphaba had stopped halfway down her braid. Galinda's eyes sharpened. She watched her pause, undo the strands, and let her thick hair flow freely. Interesting.

She ventured, "You're in a good mood."

Elphaba gasped slightly and turned. She looked embarrassed to be caught in the act, as she often did with these kinds of actions. Galinda resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"Oh. Uh, I'm just going out."

Right. "Have fun," Galinda enunciated. She quickly hid the stiffness of her voice with a yawn.

Elphaba nodded awkwardly, eyes shifting. She only glanced in the mirror once more, looking a little put-off. Then her glasses, shoes, bag. Just as normal. Galinda felt strangely reassured by the return to routine. She let her head fall back on her pillow.

She clicked on her phone screen, set to mindlessly deleting today's barrage of spam emails (the _only_ time she regretted her shopping habits) as she ran through her plans for the day in her head. She was going to meet with a couple of friends for brunch. She hadn't seen Lina since she graduated last year, and Daisy had practically disappeared from her life since she quit the fashion society earlier in the semester to 'focus on her studies' (read: her fiance.) Who knew how hard it was to keep up with people in this place? Or was she just noticing their absence now that she had no _boyfriend_ to fill up her time? Ugh.

After that, she had to catch up with reading for class. And later, of course, there was a party. Apparently it was never too early for Shiz students to celebrate Halloween, just as Galinda never missed a good party. Even if she _was_ invited by a pretty dubious classmate from her project group, a quick glance at the comments under the Facebook event assured her it was her usual crowd. She was excited for the day ahead.

...

If Elphaba didn't come back to the room last night, it was none of Galinda's business.

She had sent a text in the evening saying as much. And if Galinda suddenly hadn't felt like going to the party after all, that wasn't anyone's business either.

It worked out well - she had gotten an early night.

Galinda lifted her cup of coffee to her mouth, sipping carefully to avoid her lipstick. The scrawl on her cup read: _Glinda_. No 'A'. It never changed, even though it was always the same guy at the counter, and by now he greeted her by (what he thought was) her name and, not surprisingly, flirted with her with abandon. She had corrected his pronunciation almost as many times as she'd gone there.

Galinda glanced across from her table to see how busy the queue was. As expected there was no one there this early on a Sunday, and the barista turned and gave her a little nod-smile combo to let her know he was going to come over. God knows she needed more coffee. Brunch yesterday had morphed into afternoon tea, and she ended up studying maybe a third of what she had planned in her diary. She hated being behind schedule. She tapped her pen impatiently.

Still, it was worth it this time. She had been in a bubble of Fiyero all summer, as she was starting to fear. Maybe even all of last year? It felt _good_ to be with her friends. Even just the simple act of catching up on their love lives and giggling over gossip and TV shows made her feel giddy with connection. She had missed it.

"Hey," said an awkward, low voice.

Galinda looked up, and her eyebrows arched as she saw a tentative green wave. Miss Elphaba, up this early from her magical night? Huh.

"Oh. Hi!" She cursed herself immediately. Her voice was automatically chirpy in greeting, more enthusiastic that she felt. She dared to ask, "Where did you go last night?"

"Oh, I just went to a party," Elphaba said coolly now, "stayed with a friend at her place since it was closer."

She sounded a little like she was daring Galinda to believe she _had_ friends. But Galinda honestly couldn't say she was paying attention to that: she heard _friend_ and _her_ and she deflated immediately.

She sat up straight. So it wasn't Fiyero. She _would_ be made aware if it was, Elphaba didn't look like she could lie, and she certainly hadn't tried to hide it in the past whenever Galinda caught them together on campus.

Galinda felt herself wither a little. She knew how it felt when assumptions were made about her - which they often were.

"Do you… want to sit?"

"Okay, sure." Elphaba put her bag down and dragged back the chair opposite her. Galinda felt it loud in her ears. "Are you studying?"

"Yeah. I mean, I'm _trying_ to. Ugh," She sat up, her pen clacking on the wood table. "I just feel -" She hesitated. But Elphaba's eyes were more curious now. Was this really something she wanted to admit to her roommate?

Galinda sat up straight and watched. Elphaba looked mousy, sitting limp in her chair, eyes shifting. Braid, glasses, ugly backpack. She was picking the hem of her sleeve. Fiyero might be her boyfriend, or he might not be. But he wasn't the whole world. Galinda still had some kind of upper hand in this relationship, in Shiz. She could afford to give a little.

"It feels like I'm _so_ behind. I don't know. How can I already be behind on my work? We've been back for like, a month, right?"

"Well, are you caught up on all the reading? Assignments?" Elphaba said, looking like she was glad that she had found something to say.

"I did the quiz online for next week. And prepared for my classes for most of the week, yeah. But I need to get ahead for Friday's class - I don't have time during the week, I've got two society meetings and friends I promised to see."

"So you're caught up for the week? And you did an assignment for October already?"

Galinda nodded. She already felt lighter despite her frustration, somehow. She could have told the girls yesterday, or even just one of them alone. Or literally _any_ of her friends, since she started feeling this way last week. Why didn't she?

Elphaba was staring at her, thick eyebrows raised. She was so far removed from Galinda's sphere. For all she knew, the girl spent her days cooped up in the library and nothing else. Except the occasional _party_ , she supposed.

Paradoxically, that was why it felt safer to tell her.

"It's just a _lot_."

Elphaba quirked her mouth. It was a strange look. "Galinda," she said. "You're not falling behind at all."

"It feels like I am." Okay, she should just shut up now.

"You just said, you already did an assignment for October."

"I know…" she pouted. "But… I don't get perfect grades or anything." She huffed. That was enough self-pity for now, but for some reason, she couldn't stop herself. "How do you do it? You do all this like, activist stuff on campus, and you still have perfect grades. I heard you mention it in a phone call to your sister."

Elphaba smiled. Galinda could read her expression now. Good. "I don't know if you've noticed but…" she leaned in a fraction of an inch, lowering her voice in a way that made Galinda erupt in a giggle despite herself - "I don't really have a social life."

Galinda cocked her head. "I think we both know that's not true."

Elphaba blinked at her silently. Galinda wondered if she was too curt - she hadn't meant to be. She wouldn't have thought twice about her tone a month ago, but now, she realised it wasn't worth it. It was tiring to be resentful all the time. Galinda tried to smile to take off the edge - and it looked like Elphaba was attempting the same.

Were they doing this? It was strange - awkward enough that Galinda almost sighed in relief when the barista sidled up to Elphaba's side with a notepad.

"What can I get you today?"

"Just coffee, thanks. Black, no sugar."

He turned towards Galinda. "And anything else for you, Miss Glinda?"

" _Ga_ linda."

"Right. Glinda." He stumbled over the syllables, all at once, like he couldn't say it fast enough. "Glinda."

Galinda schooled her smile. "It's _not_ \- I think I've told you several times, now- "

He was frowning slightly as she went on, a look of alarm creeping into his eyes. Galinda continued, unfettered. "My name is _Ga_ -linda. Not Glinda."

He smiled the fakest smile, pure customer service bullshit (and Galinda _knew_ what that looked like). "Yes. Glinda," he nodded quickly, and backed away. "Okay."

She turned back to her notes, not bothering to hold an eye roll.

But Elphaba was glaring at her. That strange sense of camaraderie that was floating between a moment ago vanished in an instant, like Galinda might have imagined it.

"What?" She snapped.

Elphaba made a sharp gesture towards the cafe's counter with her hand, eyes incredulous. "That was so rude."

"It's my _name_ ," Galinda hissed. "He can't even spell it." She flung a hand towards her cup. Elphaba's irritation was compounding hers. Was this really so important?

It was Elphaba's turn to roll her eyes. "Can't you see he's literally having trouble pronouncing it? You can't judge by his accent?! You don't really think he _isn't_ hearing you, do you?"

Galinda bristled, ready to retort, but she was already on a roll. _You're not that important._ Elphaba didn't have to say the words out loud for her to read it in every disgusted line of her face.

She held Galinda's eyes and glowered.

Galinda could hardly believe it - she felt flustered, embarrassed and she didn't know why. No one had called her out so harshly like this, ever. And over something so minor? God, she didn't deserve this, not right now. Her pen clattered onto the table and she sat up, spine straight again. If Elphaba wanted a staring match, she would get one.

Her roommate just shook her head, though, her eyebrows drawing down into disappointment. Galinda hated it: the look that said she was proving right every assumption Elphaba had made about her. She sighed, "It's not a big deal, Galinda. You're making him really uncomfortable about something he can't control. It's a little racist, honestly. Just show him _nicely_ how to spell it if it really bothers you."

Galinda averted her eyes. She didn't need a lecture.

...

Galinda held her phone against her shoulder, trying in vain to balance on her foot as she pulled on a pair of sheer tights. She gave up and slumped down onto the bed. " - Yes, _yes_ Momsy, everything's fine. I'm just getting ready to go see some friends."

"...mid-December… Of course I'm eating properly. Mmm. I will. Tell Daddy I love him."

There was a party tonight that her friend Fiona was hosting, somebody's birthday, and goodness knows she deserved to go. She had been working hard all week. That weird conversation she had with Elphaba last week had a surprisingly good effect on her - the relief of realising that she wasn't so behind actually motivated her to get things done. But it was more than that. Truth be told, she wasn't expecting that kind of kindness from her roommate. Elphaba had been cold towards her all month, and though a part of her knew she herself hadn't started off with the best impression, it was more than Galinda could handle. She wasn't used to being antagonised.

She fiddled with her necklace. That wasn't the only thing striking thing that Elphaba said that day. Galinda couldn't stop thinking about the way she reacted to the whole debacle with her name. The instant change in her demeanour - from something like friendship to sharp anger in her brow in a matter of moments. Galinda couldn't get the image out of her head. Elphaba cared so much about - _that_ kind of stuff. It was impressive to see (though, not fun to be at the receiving end of). It coloured her impression of her roommate a little more vividly, something more substantial - and, well, admirable - than the unfashionable and socially inept Elphaba she was starting to get used to.

She would never admit it to anyone, but Galinda felt truly embarrassed now about the way she had acted. The barista _did_ look so uncomfortable. Almost like he was afraid of her. That certainly wasn't a reaction that she wanted to get from anyone. She smoothed her skirt down and picked up her jacket - a shimmery white blazer, a present from her parents for completing her penultimate year at Shiz.

It turned out Elphaba _cared_ about people's feelings. Even when doing so was awkward or inconvenient - the complete opposite of the way Galinda thought about it. Was this the Elphaba that her friends knew? That Fiyero knew?

It was chilly outside. She half-skipped her way to Fiona's house to escape the cold. Inside, the party was already in full swing. Fiona was living with five other friends (including the birthday girl) so the house was large, old and _grand,_ and the metallic balloons that were strewn around the living room dazzled whenever they hit the light. Thought it was probably too crowded to try and find her now, when Galinda saw her host, she would tell her what a good job she did with the decor.

She pushed her way through the crowd. It was a little too rowdy for her tastes - nothing fun about being sober in a room full of drunk classmates - and she guessed she did arrive a little too late. The door to the garden was wide open, and the absence of blaring music drew her towards there.

Outside there were only a few people. Way too few people, she realised in a sudden panic, because no sooner had she scanned her eyes around the garden did she find a familiar face -

"Galinda!"

"Oh - ! Fiyero." He was sitting in a lawn chair, next to another one that housed a couple, smoking and giggling in each other's laps. He looked expectant for a second, but then jumped up and sprinted towards her - probably remembered how much Galinda hated cigarette smoke, or vape, or whatever kind of _fumes_ it might have been.

"Galinda - I haven't seen you in a while. Hey."

She nodded towards him slowly, pulling a smile across her face. "How have you been?"

"Pretty good I guess," he stuck his hands in his pockets and shrugged, a tentative smile on his lips. Galinda hated how familiar and dear the move was. "You?"

She laughed, and it wasn't unkind. For some reason, she wasn't feeling unkind. "What?" She joked, "Elphaba hasn't kept you updated about me?"

His smile turned sheepish. "I've heard that you're very on top of things, as ever." He mimed tipping a hat. God, he was kind of stupid.

She might have been blushing, but thankfully it was dark. She rocked back on the balls of her feet a little. "Well, I should probably go inside and get a drink…"

"Right. It was good seeing you," he nodded.

"You too."

It wasn't a lie. Though Galinda's heart was beating quickly as she stepped into the house, it wasn't from anger - or want, or heartache. If anything, it was shock. Shock at how easy it was to face him, and talk to him. She felt awkward, of course. But the Fiyero she had built up in her head - just like the Elphaba - didn't seem to match the reality as much as she had thought. Seeing him brought him back to Earth. He was real again - a lively, lovely guy. Standing seven feet away now, Galinda realised how little interest she had in starting any kind of crap.

So they hadn't worked out. And Galinda had wished beyond anything that they would. But like the fancy-font inspirational quotes on her Pinterest boards said, Galinda was a work in progress. And so was he.

...

"It's actually - it's G - A - L - like that." She tapped out her name in the notes section of her phone and slid it over on the counter. It was a Wednesday evening, just before closing time. "I'm sorry about last time, I was just under a bit of stress, that's all. I hope I didn't upset you."

"Oh. No, it's fine, of course." The barista - his name was Ari, apparently - mouthed the letters as he scribbled them onto her cup with a sharpie, checking against the screen. He did look nervous. But Galinda beamed.

He brought it back to her filled with hot chocolate and clipped on the plastic lid. "There, Miss Glinda." The flirtatious tone was back and Galinda tried to hide a smirk. That would have to do for now.

Ari was wiping off the counter. On a whim, Galinda took out her phone again as she was halfway done with zipping her bag. She snapped a quick photo. She had to scroll for a while to find Elphaba's name in her messages.

Underneath the photo of the cup she captioned, _Success ;D_ , and hit send.

The reply came as she was halfway to her dorm:

 _Great job Glinda. I hope you didn't give him a hard time_

She rolled her eyes at the bastardisation of her name but she wasn't really annoyed. Honestly, it was a little thrilling to entertain the idea that her roommate may actually be in possession of a sense of humour. She thought for a second about retorting, but slipped her phone back into her bag. Elphaba didn't need to know that she _hadn't_ given him a hard time.


	4. Chapter 4

Elphaba's phone jumped with successive vibrations where it lay on the desk. She glanced briefly at it - a video link from Fiyero, to add to the notifications from Nessa, asking about the best place to get alcohol on campus. She was relieved to have a good reason not to reply. Not only because that's the last thing she would be able to give advice on, but she was in the _zone_ right now.

Three cups of coffee since morning equalled three thousand words. It was well past midnight now, but she had no plans of leaving the library any time soon. This mammoth essay was due in the morning. She did start out with a sensible plan for getting it done this weekend - but nothing derails sensible plans like your _very_ favourite writer's new book being released, after a five-year wait. So she had spent all of Saturday devouring it, telling herself each next hour would be the last, until most of the day had gone and she hadn't written a single word.

She loved the book. Granted, it wasn't as amazing as the ones she had read in her childhood (though could that comparison even be made?) but the same nostalgia flooded her senses. It was an irreplaceable feeling. The Wizard - as he was known in the fandom - never let her down. This one didn't actually have any magic or wizards, so she guessed he was branching out to serious real life literature like every author seemed to do these days, but nothing could beat that prose. And above all else, those characters. Green, or blue, or hell, even purple - they were always brilliant and rare, fully fleshed out like she'd never seen.

And not green and purple like a crazy science fiction movie. But like _her_ \- they were the rare humans. It had been a revelation to her thirteen year old self, picking up the first series and seeing herself reflected in them. And growing up, she discovered all of his academic writing too. It was half the reason she was set on studying what she was.

Her phone dinged again and she couldn't resist checking it. Every time Galinda's name came up now it cracked her up - " _Glinda_ " plus that hideous heart-with-a-bow emoji, which Elphaba decided she deserved because she had actually _insisted_ that it was cute. She glanced at the message.

 _Can I eat your rice in th fridge? Plssss i'm dying_

 _I'll buy u more okay_

Elphaba put her pen down and tapped out a _sure._ And then, _what's happened?_

She could guess what had happened - a "management society social" - by an ostensibly academic club that was, in Elphaba's point of view, entirely a front for lavish parties. As lavish as student parties could get, but the Department budget definitely helped. And drunk Galinda, rare as she was, was an impressively hungry Galinda.

The inevitable reply came, along with three sparkle emojis of gratitude. Elphaba typed, _make sure you drink water with that_. And now she was down the rabbit hole of checking every other message, and Instagram, too. Damn it.

...

When she got into bed it was past 3AM; essay written, edited and submitted. Not her best, but it would have to do. She could make up the grade with the presentation mark in December. Presentations were, surprisingly, her best bet. Elphaba didn't consider herself the greater speaker, she was far too liberal with her rhetorical questions, but the professors always praised her 'enthusiasm'. She thought that was a little excessive, just for speaking about things that mattered, but whatever.

"Elphie?"

She snapped out of her thoughts with a start, barely registering the nickname. "You're awake?"

Galinda yawned. "Yeah. What's the time?"

She checked her phone. "It's almost half past three. Don't you have a lecture tomorrow morning?"

Galinda sat up with a moan and fumbled with her bedside table for a moment before finding her water bottle. "No. Professor's out of town."

In the faint light from the crack in the curtain, Elphaba watched her unscrew the bottle and take a few big gulps. Her body was hunched forward in fatigue, and the hair tie that was probably supposed to be pulling her hair into a ponytail was clinging on for dear life. A few stray curls clung to her forehead. She slumped down again and pulled the covers up to her ears. It was almost endearing, seeing Galinda like this - so far from her usual dolled up self.

She was surprised, when she first moved in, about how much Galinda could _keep it up -_ in her own space, too. Even when she was doing nothing but scrolling through her phone in her room (which to be fair, was rare) she never had a hair out of place. Matching pajama sets, cutesy slippers, impeccable make-up.

She wasn't going to admit it out loud, and she certainly didn't want to jinx it by thinking too hard about it, but they were almost friends by now. Definitely getting used to each other. The clipped housekeeping texts seemed to have less ominous weight behind them, though the words were the same. Actual conversations were definitely longer these days. She wouldn't be able to pinpoint how, but the smiley faces on Galinda's sickeningly pastel pink sticky notes - _"remember it's your turn to clean the bathroom! :)"_ had begun to feel more genuine than passive aggressive.

Galinda wasn't as shallow as Elphaba had always thought. Well - she _was_ \- but she had a lot more going on than that, too. Elphaba honestly felt sorry for the level of perfection Galinda expected from herself. Her appearance, her schoolwork, her friends and their countless events and parties. _Fake_ wasn't the right word, because Galinda actually seemed to enjoy it that way, but all the same, it seemed tiring. It impressed Elphaba.

And she was willing to _learn_ , which is what surprised her the most. The last time she caught Galinda at the coffee shop, she had been chatting up her flustered barista. They were on good terms now, apparently. Elphaba had been sitting with her work piled up on a table near the back. Galinda had acknowledged her briefly as she came in, and then she twirled around mid-conversation to give her a playful wink.

Elphaba had erupted into giggles, and Galinda looked very pleased with herself, even as her eyes were back across the counter. Elphaba knew what that was all about. That ridiculous gesture was a tiny offer of reconciliation, building on the what she had insinuated when she sent her that picture of her cup. Not that Galinda owed her this, but it was so much more than what Elphaba had expected from her at the start.

Elphaba had misread her, and yet she didn't feel embarrassed of that fact, when Galinda was showing off how she had taken her advice in such amiable ways. She was just _good_ at being friendly.

And Elphaba couldn't help but feel a little bit of pride that out of Galinda's million friends, her roommate was the one who seemed to have affected her in such a way. Maybe they weren't going to be terrible roommates, even if they would never be the closest.

"Elphie?" Galinda's voice came again. It was quieter this time. Elphaba assumed she had fallen asleep.

"Yes?" Seriously, what was with that nickname?

"Are you and Fiyero dating?"

Elphaba breathed in sharply. She didn't expect _that_. She tried to think carefully about her answer.

To be completely honest, she didn't really know the answer. They were in such a grey area, and Elphaba had so little experience with this stuff anyway. Was it worth trying to explain that to Galinda, when she was in this state?

Especially with the way she sounded - timid, unlike herself.

"We aren't… Fiyero and I - we're just friends." Elphaba said. She couldn't help how defensive the words sounded stumbling out.

"But you like him."

"I do," she said slowly. But saying it out loud made it worse. Made the notion deflate, somehow. "But…"

"It's fine," Galinda said. She didn't sound mad. She sighed loudly. "I don't understand it, but it's fine."

Elphaba flared up before she could help it. Every bit of sympathy she was feeling rushed out of her. She tried to keep her voice even, "I know that it might be hard for you to imagine that he might even want to hang out with someone like me, but that's how it is."

Galinda didn't reply for a while. Elphaba heard her shift, the covers ruffling. Finally she replied, her voice muffled, "That's not what I meant. I just... I thought he loved me."

Oh. Elphaba worried her tongue between her teeth. That was way too impulsive. She shouldn't have said that, not when Galinda was drunk and half-asleep.

And what could she say to _this?_

She tried, "I'm sure he did. You know these things aren't really in people's control."

Galinda's voice seemed to get even lower, and Elphaba had to strain to hear. She was turned towards the wall. Elphaba watched the outline of her back as best as she could.

"I don't know what I'm doing _wrong_."

What? Elphaba didn't understand. Galinda - as she knew her now - wasn't doing anything wrong at all. What a strange way to put it. She felt a helpless frustration rise again, but for a different reason.

"What do you mean?"

"Like, I don't know what _else_ I could do - how to be a good girlfriend or a more attractive person or whatever."

"Oh, Galinda, come on. He's not the only guy in the world."

Elphaba sensed it was deeper than that, but she didn't dare broach the subject. She definitely didn't have any advice to offer on that front. And she would be a hypocrite, offering her thoughts with Fiyero in her arms (from Galinda's point of view, anyway.)

The sheets ruffled again. Galinda turned onto her back and glanced towards the window above them. Elphaba could hear birds starting to chirp in the distance. She thought she heard a sniffle.

To hell with it. "You know you're so much more than that, right? You work so hard, you're usually so nice to everyone, and you're _beautiful_."

Galinda giggled - ' _usually_ ' clearly referring to the coffee shop debacle. But she sobered and sighed again. "I guess it's just… you don't know how hard I have to work… to be smart. To be pretty."

Okay, Elphaba _really_ doubted that. The pretty part, at least. She turned so they were facing each other. She was so ready to be indignant but one look at Galinda's expression in the dark stopped her. She tried to rephrase her point.

" _That's_ the important part, Galinda," she said finally. "You work hard. And it gets you where you want to be. Just make sure it isn't all for boys, that's the last thing worth your energy."

Galinda sighed again. "I suppose."

Elphaba waited for her to say something else. And when she didn't, she tried to see if Galinda had fallen asleep or if she was just thinking to herself. But Galinda wouldn't yield. Finally, Elphaba turned to her phone. She could never sleep right after doing schoolwork, and now, even less so, though she didn't know why.

...

The next day Elphaba woke up to six missed calls from Nessa. She was surprised to find Galinda still fast asleep across from her. She checked the time. _12:13._ Shit.

Well, it could be worse. Normally, she would be up and running by now, even after a late night, but she figured she deserved a break after the marathon essay writing last night. Not to mention the trouble she had falling asleep. She called Nessa back.

Her sister's shrill voice came instantly. "Elphaba! Are you busy? I've been calling you!"

Elphaba found her voice. "I just woke up. What is it?"

"You're supposed to come to town with me! The Halloween party, remember? I still need an outfit."

Oh, right. That. Elphaba groaned and rubbed sleep out of her eyes. She could practically hear Nessa pout through the phone. "Okay, uh, I'll meet you outside your building? At one? ... Yeah. See you later."

Ugh. This was the last thing she wanted to be doing today. She pulled the corner of the curtain away, though the angle was awkward from her bed. It was so cloudy that the whole sky seemed to be one big, ominous sheet of grey. The kind of day where she should be doing absolutely nothing at all. She had a couple of readings to finish for class, but other than that, she had planned to spend it unwinding (well, scouring forums about the Wizard's new book, mostly), checking on Nessa, and maybe splurging a little on one of the delicious desserts down at her - and Galinda's - favourite campus coffee shop.

But she should really keep her word to Nessa. Damn her sister's endless parties. But she seemed really excited about this one, and Elphaba used that fact to encourage herself.

"Good morning," Galinda chirped, with a yawn.

Elphaba breathed out a laugh. "Good _afternoon_. We're both having a very productive Monday, you can see."

Elphaba saw Galinda check her phone out of the corner of her eye and gasp. She sat up and leapt to the bathroom almost in one motion. Elphaba wanted to grumble about being the first one to wake, but she didn't have the energy, thinking about her dismal day ahead.

"Where are you going?" Galinda asked a while later over her mug of coffee, as Elphaba was lacing up her boots.

"I have to go help my sister shop for a party." Elphaba rolled her eyes to emphasise just how tedious she found the notion.

Galinda nodded and made a little noise of sympathy, but her eyes had lit up. "Oh!" She licked her lips, "I know a little about that. Do you want me to come?"

"Really? Don't you have somewhere else you need to be?"

Galinda shook her head immediately. "I have nothing going on. Honestly, I need any excuse not to go to this afternoon tea thing with the fashion soc committee." She saw Elphaba's quirked eyebrow. "Oh no, it's nothing important. Just a social." She mock-whispered, "If I have to hear about Cassie's boyfriend one more time…"

"Sure," Elphaba said, slightly puzzled.

Okay, so they were doing that. She didn't really expect Galinda to be the kind of person to just tag along with her on a whim, regardless of whether there was shopping involved, but she decided to go with it - she wasn't too surprised since the coffee shop incident. It was nice, actually. As strange as it might sound, the spontaneity of Galinda's offer was something she experienced rarely in her college life. And Galinda could definitely handle Nessa's enthusiasm. The question was whether _she_ could handle the both of them.

...

She couldn't. She found herself sitting in a cafe three hours later, book in hand. Thank God she remembered to bring it. She had to escape after the first ten stores they went to, where despite spending two hours, Nessa managed to buy nothing at all for her outfit. Which wasn't to say she didn't buy everything goddamn thing in the store she _didn't_ come out for - a scarf here, a shirt there; all under Galinda's sage advice, of course. Elphaba promised to meet them here when they were done, and then she fled as soon as she could. Nessa didn't seem to mind at all; her attention was completely on Galinda and her myriad insightful recommendations.

Elphaba was grateful. She had never liked her roommate more, in fact. Few people gave Nessa that kind of attention - and Elphaba knew it was because of the wheelchair, whether they realised it, or wanted to admit it, or not. And Galinda was a busy person. But she didn't seem to mind _any_ opportunity to impart her wisdom regarding fashion, it turned out.

When they finally dragged themselves into the cafe and to Elphaba's table, the sun was starting to set. To be _fair_ , they did look tired now.

Elphaba's first question was, "Did you get what you needed for the party?"

Nessa piped up, "Yeah! Let me show you -" she rummaged inside the bag in her lap "- I also got this skirt, and remember the earrings I was trying to decide whether to get? Well…"

Galinda was ordering something across the table, an elbow on the wooden surface and a flick of curly hair against her cheek. As the waiter left she sat up, smoothed her hair, took out a couple of items from her bag and began reapplying her lip gloss.

"...but they didn't look right with the ears in the end, so we returned them. I think I'm gonna go with the purple one, but I have to check with Evie who's doing all our make-up."

Elphaba nodded along. "Great… do you both want something to eat? I'll buy."

Nessa beamed even more, and Galinda only looked a little smug under her own smile. Elphaba could read her expression all too well - it was a _yeah, you owe me_ and a _thanks_ all at once. They ordered two giant slices of cake and a strawberry tart in the end. Nessa dutifully complained about counting calories while scoffing down her portion.

"Why can't I be like you," she huffed and pinched Elphaba's skinny wrist for emphasis. "Your metabolism's like a fifteen year old boy."

Boys, clothes, and diets. This was the conversation with these two. God, she needed better company. Yet the way Galinda watched the two of them, as Elphaba watched her, betrayed something more on her part. She was observing them.

On the way back to the dorm, after they had deposited Nessa's _five_ bags of shopping, Galinda struck up a strange tone.

"Your sister's nice."

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I know she can be a little much…"

Galinda laughed. She sounded like she couldn't hold it anymore, "I can't _believe_ you guys are related."

Elphaba shook her head. She didn't know why she felt so bashful. "Everyone always says that!"

Galinda was humming something noncommittally. She spoke again as the main door beeped open, and she held it open for Elphaba with her foot. "I don't know, I can see the similarities, too."

"What?" Elphaba was intrigued.

Galinda tilted her head and pretended to think hard, before bouncing up the stairs.

" _What?_ " Elphaba called after her. Galinda's kitten heels were no match for her boots.

"You're both very… _passionate._ " Galinda settled on the word as she walked backwards to their door.

Elphaba coughed in surprise. She didn't know what to make of that tone, or her words. "You know, Nessa's passionate about shoes and pop stars," she said, not without affection. "And she just wants to fit in."

Galinda jangled her key in the lock, but she turned back before she opened the door.

"It's really cool that you don't care about that stuff," she said to Elphaba's bag which was dangling by her knees. "Fitting in, I mean." She looked up tentatively.

Elphaba was struck dumb. "Oh," was all she could say.

Again, Galinda had managed to take her by surprise. She looked at Galinda's face despite the overwhelming urge to hide away. Galinda's cautious expression said it all. This was about last night.

Maybe taking Nessa out was about last night, too. She smiled. "Thanks."

Galinda relaxed and grinned brilliantly at her. Elphaba was so fucking glad to be green right now.


	5. Chapter 5

The first time Galinda followed Elphie to one of her long library sessions it was a cold Sunday afternoon in November. She herself always preferred to study in a cafe, or in the common areas around campus. There was nothing as distracting as silence. Even the buzz of the Student Centre, filled with people hardly working at this hour, just chatting and giggling and cursing loudly (as _crass_ as she found that) was preferable. But Elphie seemed to be in her element here, and she was curious to know why.

She had to admit, she didn't really get it. It was barely half an hour until she finally slumped in her chair and closed her textbook with a sigh. She looked idly across to Elphie's belongings. She was working on her laptop. A couple of cheap highlighters lay on top of a small pile of textbooks. And that book.

Galinda reached over, picked it up and tilted her head to read the gold lettering on the spine. "You've been carrying that around for weeks. Good book?"

Elphaba looked up. "Oh - yeah," she said. "It is. My favourite writer." Her eyes gleamed in a way that said she was withholding her excitement about it for Galinda's benefit.

"Is this a series?"

"No, not this one. It's pretty new. Well, I don't think so, but he said in an interview last week that there's a chance he might continue the story if-"

"Your favourite writer, you said? So he's written other stuff you like?"

"Oh, _lots._ And it's so great that - there's actually going to be a book signing in Oz in a few months..."

"I assume you're going?" It was an easy assumption, by the way Elphie's eyes glittered.

Elphie nodded. "I want to, definitely! Just so I can tell him how much his books mean to me. You know, when I was growing up."

"Why?"

Elphaba shrugged. "They're so good."

"But why do they mean so much to you?" Galinda asked again. She was struck by how much she wanted to know the answer to that question.

Seemingly in reply, Elphie took the book from her hands and opened the very last page. Inside the back cover there were rows of rectangular pictures - little book covers, under a heading that read " _More by this author…_ " Even they were in colour - an expensive copy, clearly. The first few titles looked pretty whimsical, swishy illustrations and a quirky font that gave away that they were intended to be kids' books. Each cover centered on a girl in a flowing white robe, stark against her purple skin and with wide, adventurous eyes. Sometimes she was joined by others - a dark blue boy with even darker blue hair and a sword, a waifish green girl with a high ponytail.

"They're like you!" Galinda said before she could help herself. She looked up at Elphaba, who was watching her earnestly. Her air made it seem like she had been doing that for a while.

Elphie nodded with a smile.

"So are they any good?" she asked, drawing her finger along the page.

"Are you asking me for a recommendation?"

Galinda smiled. "Maybe. I haven't read a novel in a while."

Elphaba quirked an eyebrow. "I didn't peg you for a casual reader."

"You're mistaking me for Fiyero, Elphie."

Elphaba snorted. "Magazines and Instagram feeds don't count, _Glinda_." She tried to hold a smirk, "And anyway, Fiyero _does_ read these days, believe it or not."

Galinda feigned a gasp. "Is he _alright_?"

Elphaba scrunched her nose. "He's going to need more careful monitoring; we'll have to keep him for at least a little while longer."

Her tone was light and silvery, slippery with mirth. Galinda let it lead her on, curious at this side of her friend, giddy with the ease it gave her own quips. Only when they were already up, bags collected and halfway down the road to the campus cafe, did Galinda really take notice of the subject matter.

She was giggling about _Fiyero_. With _Elphaba_. She must be out of her mind.

Elphie was clearly keeping up with whatever on Earth Fiyero was up to these days.

And just like that, she sobered. Elphie was ahead of her, and Galinda caught her sleeve to stop her.

The moment would pass quickly. She didn't know why she had to ask what she did, but the words slipped out anyway. "Elphie, do you think Fiyero was right to break up with me?"

God, what a stupid thing to say. How strange it must have sounded.

Elphaba's features screwed together on her face. Galinda closed her eyes and braced herself for the inevitable onslaught of empowerment: _his opinion doesn't define you, you shouldn't care what he thinks, there's more to life, it's his loss, right?_

She opened her eyes. Elphaba was next to her again, a hand on her arm. "I don't know," she said bluntly.

"I wouldn't have thought -" she cut herself off, looking at the ground and crossing her arms, like she was hugging herself. Galinda missed the anchor of her hand. She continued, "You guys - you _look_ good together. I used to think you two were equally dumb and pretty."

Galinda breathed a laugh. " _Excuse me_."

"But Fiyero's _not_ dumb." Elphaba implored. Then, she grimaced and pretended to ponder, "You on the other ha-"

"Elphie!" Galinda exclaimed, bumping her shoulder. But she was exalted, for some reason.

Elphaba grinned freely.

"The point I'm making is, neither of you are like what I thought back when I first met you. Or, before I met you. Whatever. So if I was wrong about that, then it's probably wrong to think you would have suited each other, too. Do you know what I mean?"

"I guess…" Galinda said. "Sorry, I don't know why I asked that."

"No, I get it," Elphaba said, falling into step with her.

Galinda let their shoulders touch. Just as quickly as it had hit, her pitiful mood disappeared. She heard her own heels clack on the pavement, and felt Elphaba next to her, the swing of her sidebag and the blocky steps her combat boots made.

"So you _do_ think Fiyero's hot," she said finally. She might have been conveniently edging around the part she was most curious about.

Elphaba shrugged noncommittally. "I said he was pretty."

Galinda pouted. "He _is,_ " and she sighed for dramatic emphasis. She was definitely overdoing it for Elphaba's enjoyment, because she didn't feel _actually_ sad about it, either. She hated how quickly her mood swung when it came to him. "He is _so_ pretty."

"Not as pretty as you, Glinda," Elphaba sighed back to her, like she was placating a petulant child.

Galinda laughed. "That makes me feel better," she played along.

Elphaba rolled her eyes, but they were still glittering. "As if you don't know it, too," she huffed.

They were on air this afternoon. Galinda relished it.

...

The next time Galinda accompanied her friend late to the library, she had good reason to be there. There were hardly three weeks of the semester left.

Galinda scrawled furiously in her diary, skipping from one open tab on her computer to another: semester dates, Facebook events, group chats; a tedious little collection of emails ready to be sent to some dreadful member of college staff in some office God knows where, confirming that _yes_ , they've booked this room since October, and no, they don't need to fill in any more forms, thanks. She had finals coming up, the last big Management social event - a boat party she had put together almost all by herself which she was ridiculously excited about - to organise, and a myriad of friends and mostly acquaintances (that's _really_ what they were) vying for a quick meet-up somewhere before the winter break.

Elphaba sat next to her, her mouth in a stern little frown, engrossed in an essay that had grown by maybe two sentences since Galinda last glanced at it an hour earlier.

Galinda flipped the silvery ribbon down to mark the date and shut her diary. Time for a much-needed break for both of them. "Elphie, are you going home over break?" She asked, as a polite form of interruption.

Elphaba looked up quick enough that Galinda knew her mind was already more than ready to be distracted. She said nonchalantly, "Huh? Oh, no. There isn't really much to do at home." Her eyes went back to her computer for a brief second. She shut the lid and began fidgeting with the cord. "Let's go for a break?"

Strange. Nessa was excited to be going home, according to what she had texted Galinda the other day, so she wondered why Elphaba wasn't feeling the same. At the very least, Elphie seemed happy to just sit and read and do whatever else she did alone on her computer, when she wasn't out protesting (and there weren't many opportunities for _that_ here over break) so Galinda didn't know how a little change of scenery to somewhere more familiar could do anything to harm her routine.

"Well, I'm going! Maybe not for the whole month but… Do you usually go home? You don't miss your parents?"

"Just my father. And normally I only go back for summer. My dad is picking Nessa up on the Wednesday, anyway, and I have a presentation to do on Friday. It's gonna be hell to take two trains and a coach, and I won't miss much at home."

"Hm. Okay." Galinda said. But she didn't understand. "Doesn't it make more sense to pick you both up on Friday?"

Elphaba set her lips in a grimace. "Nessa's got plans with her friend the day after she leaves, so no, not really."

That didn't seem fair at all. Surely Nessa could move her plans a day later, rather than make her sister endure the... _entertaining_ experience that public transport from Shiz had to offer? But Elphie's expression said it wasn't open for discussion. Galinda changed the subject. She was curious, sure, but definitely not in the mood for a lecture.

She leaned over Elphie's shoulder. "Watcha working on?"

It bothered her, though. Slight as the situation seemed to Elphie, it didn't match the bubbly Nessa she knew.

"Hell if I know," Elphaba mumbled. She turned, amused, to Galinda perched on her shoulder, "Can I help you?" she asked incredulously.

Galinda giggled. She didn't think Elphie was really annoyed (it was surprisingly easy to read her these days) but she was clearly unused to this level of attention - yes, attention, _not_ disruption - in the library.

And she wasn't grimacing any more.

"Wanna get coffee?" Galinda said, and she leapt up and brushed her skirt down.

Elphaba quirked her eyebrow in her awkward way and sat back; an expression that felt like a prize. "I think you come to the library _just_ to get coffee."

"Not _just_ that," Galinda said.

She made a show of closing Elphie's open textbook. From the corner of her eye she saw Elphaba smile, and turn away quickly to pack up her computer.

Her phone dinged twice on her way out. This next eager acquaintance was none other than her roommate's sister.

"Nessa wants me to help her shop for makeup," she announced.

"Really? I know she's a little over excited about this stuff," Elphaba rushed to say, "You don't have to go, you know."

Galinda sprang down the steps of the library entrance. "No way! I'm gonna change her _life_ ," she said. She was watching Elphaba's tone. There was nothing beyond a good-natured, if slightly embarrassed lilt when she spoke of her sister. And yet. "If she learns how to do a proper face it'll change everything," she continued.

Elphaba's face was doubtful.

"It _will_. It's about her confidence, Elphie, not really about changing the way she looks. You said so yourself, remember?"

Elphaba rolled her eyes, like she couldn't believe that she had to even explain. "Makeup doesn't equal confidence! It shouldn't even have anything to do with how you look in the first place. That's just bullshit they feed to young-"

Galinda felt a smile creep up. Classic Elphie.

"Why are you smiling? All I said is that you don't need makeup to be confident. It's stupid those things are related."

Galinda had a ridiculous urge to - God, she didn't know - shake her by her stupid bony shoulders? " _You_ don't, Elphie."

Elphaba grumbled something under her breath.

Galinda piped up suddenly, ready as she was for her idea to be shot down, "Hey, why don't you come? Maybe I could show you a few tricks to use the next time you're on a date…"

Elphie looked dumbstruck. "Nah."

"Why not?"

"I'm green, Galinda." She deadpanned.

Galinda blinked. "And?"

"I'm not really looking to take a freaking loan out of the bank for specialist brand _make up_ , of all things," she said.

They had reached the little cafe. Galinda checked her watch as she swung the door open - ten minutes before closing time. She nodded to Ari behind the counter before dropping her bag on a seat near the entrance.

"I don't mean all that, just a little threading and some brow pencil could do you wonders," she hummed. "You don't really need mascara…"

" _No._ "

"Oh Elphie, come on. It's just a little fun! I'm not saying wear it regularly, or ever. Just humour me."

"It's not my thing, Galinda."

"But you're like a blank canvas!"

"Seriously, drop it," Elphaba said, and she turned to the front of the shop. "Do you want your usual?" she asked tightly over her shoulder, like she was barely managing not to sound angry.

Galinda knew when she had overstepped. "Uh - yeah," she said quietly. She tried not to pout.

...

Galinda sensed they weren't back to normal the rest of the day, no matter how many angles of conversation she seemed to try. The sheer _fun_ she had had right before, just joking around unabashedly with Elphie of all people, made it feel even worse. Eventually, she went back to her room while her roommate returned to the library.

She couldn't understand how she could have angered Elphie so easily. She was trying to be better, more considerate. In a matter of months she had made a friend out of someone she was more than ready to antagonise at the beginning of this year. They were good friends. _Close_ friends by now (it felt like that, at least, though she didn't know what Elphaba thought), out of sheer exposure if nothing else. Galinda didn't want to be walking on eggshells in her own room, not again.

Elphie came back around midnight. Galinda was sitting in bed. She had toyed with the idea of sending a text, but she didn't want to be curt if Elphie was on edge, and she settled on waiting until she returned to turn off the lights.

She wanted to ask; she didn't want to probe.

Elphaba broke the silence. "I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier."

"It was my fault, I pushed it too much-"

"You were just having fun." Her voice was tight, still.

Galinda watched, like she often did. Elphaba's back was turned, facing her wardrobe. She quickly shed her clothes, pulled on a pair of grey leggings and an old, loose t-shirt from her many millions, twisting her bra out from underneath. Only with the light of her desk lamp left on, she came to sit on her bed, grabbing a comb for her nightly ritual. She faced Galinda.

"It's just that -" she looked up to the ceiling, and down into her hands, before looking at Galinda again. She was toying with the comb; her eyes vulnerable. Galinda tried to feel prepared for whatever came next, but it felt like the rug was pulled out from under her.

Elphaba sighed. "It's not a fun topic for me. Not at all. I know that sounds kind of dramatic, but…"

Galinda sat up and crossed her legs with the slightest nod.

"When I was younger… I really hated... you know," Elphaba gestured with a careless hand to her face and torso. Galinda nodded seriously, though she already hated where this was heading.

"I would try stuff," - and she rolled her eyes: _stupid kid stuff_ \- "I looked at magazines, I asked Nessa for help, I watched an _insane_ amount of those tutorials on the Internet."

That was a surprise. "So you _did_ like all that... girly stuff?" For lack of a better word - Galinda was focused now, waiting to see where this admission would head.

Elphaba nodded uncomfortably. "I asked my dad for money, once. Just to go to the mall for something small, like Nessa always did. You know what he said about it?"

"What?"

Elphaba spoke quietly. "He just scoffed. He said it was like putting lipstick on a pig."

Galinda couldn't hold her gasp.

"He actually said that _to me_. I was, I don't know, fourteen?"

The comb looked like it was about to snap in her hands. Galinda sprang to her side in one movement, sitting on the bed and taking it out of her hands, prying them open in the same gesture.

Elphaba was frowning now; a frown that fast threatened to turn into something else. Her voice was rough with feeling, rawer than Galinda had ever heard from her. "And it wasn't just him - I could see it, I could _tell_. Everyone - random family members, kids at school, _everyone_ thought that."

Galinda already had her arms around her when her voice broke, and she smoothed Elphie's hair with an earnest hand.

"That's why I don't care. I _can't_ afford to, Galinda, I really can't."

Galinda stroked her hair. It was so long, and Elphie was just about to comb it through like she did every night, and she was probably tangling it, making it worse. Still she held on. She felt so silly.

Elphie sniffed and stiffened in her arms. "There's nothing in the damn world to them that's going to make up for the fact that I don't look _normal."_

"Well, that's just about the stupidest fucking thing I've ever heard."

Elphaba choked on a laugh and wiped her eye with the heel of her palm. "Isn't it just?"

And Galinda heard: _is it?_ And she felt stupider, and smaller, and more _vain_ than ever.

She didn't know what else to say. She squeezed Elphaba's hand. Finally she let her go and said, "I'm sorry, Elphie, I didn't know."

Elphaba shrugged her acceptance. "Like I said, it's kind of a stupid thing."

Galinda didn't feel big enough right now to argue that, as much as she wanted to. She could so easily say something wrong. She had absolutely no experience with something like _this_.

"Oh, Elphie. I bet I sound like a complete jerk when I complain about my _boy_ problems."

"No," Elphie sniffed. And then she laughed, apologetically, "It kind of makes me feel better."

Galinda's eyes widened, and Elphaba quickly said, "I'm kidding!"

But she was sad again, much too soon. Her shoulders drooped, not a hint of that righteous attitude despite her joking moments before. It didn't suit her.

Galinda fiddled with the comb. It was small consolation for evoking such an ugly memory. She didn't know why she felt her chest heave, and her hands freeze up, at asking such a simple thing - _offering_ such a simple thing. She tried her best sheepish smile, waving the comb in the air. "Can I comb your hair? I think I messed it up."

Elphaba smiled weakly. She seemed too tired to object, even out of politeness or awkwardness.

One impossibly neat braid later, Galinda was more sobered than ever. Elphie's hair was thin and silky enough that the strands slipped when she tried to braid them, so it took a while, but she was repaying Elphie for her fumble the best way she knew how.

The deliriously sleepy " _Thanks, goodnight,_ " her friend mumbled to her as she switched off the light and slipped under her own covers, before promptly passing out, was more than worth the trouble.


	6. Chapter 6

Elphaba ran up the stairs to her dorm, two at a time. She would have taken the elevator, except someone was in the process of dragging two suitcases out of it, clearly ready to kickstart an early escape from this semester. One glance at the colour-coordinated purples told her at least two more were probably going to follow.

So. She might have just _escaped_ her first real date with Fiyero. No big deal.

She wasn't sure what they had been doing the past few months. It was fun. Maybe it was just what friends did - and he would definitely count among her few friends here in Shiz, or ever. She was happy with their usual haunts and hangouts: chatting over books and coffees, sending each other videos during class; happy, even, with the frankly ostentatious level of flirting that seemed to be Fiyero's style of communicating with anyone (though maybe her more than _anyone_ ), now that she had taught herself to take it for what it was.

And now she had fled - literally, immediately _fled_ \- a tantalising offer like _that_ , from one of her favourite friends. Her hottest friend. Galinda was right about that.

She had to slow down a little and grab the rail for her bladder's sake, feeling mildly pathetic about the predicament she put herself in. Maybe the fact she had turned him down in a way that was _awkward as hell_ , would make it sting less for Fiyero. Maybe he'd think he dodged a bullet, she thought, a little deliriously.

So why had she left like that? Why did she stand up ramrod straight and stammer and take her leave at his suggestion of dinner, overcome with a sudden desire to be far, far away in her room, without even taking the time to use the damned cafe bathroom before her half-hour walk back to campus?

Maybe it was the way he had smiled and mumbled it, betraying more anxiety than she ever thought him capable of. "I'll pay," he had said, making it worse. Maybe it was how her phone had lit up on the table with an offhand message from her roommate - _do we have hand spare handwash?!_ \- the most mundane thing, to bring her back down to Earth. Maybe it was how she had shrunk, thinking about herself, her in her plain clothes and plain demeanour in the fanciest restaurants Shiz had to offer as Fiyero listed them off tentatively. Maybe it was the venue itself - God help her if she was going to overindulge like that on a school night.

Maybe it was just her. Just him.

Fiyero was attractive in a way that made her feel starkly out of place. Fiyero was utterly kind. Behind his clueless demeanour lay a kind of heart and eagerness to learn that made her feel light as feathers, and heavier than ever at the very same time, because little by little she had figured out now what Galinda had really lost.

She had them in parallel, she realised, trudging up (thankfully) the last set of stairs. The last two people she would ever expect. The better she knew Fiyero out there, the better she knew Galinda in here, the more confused she became detangling her two newest most favourite people.

Maybe it was Galinda. She had to smile. She couldn't help but wonder how much better Galinda would fare in a situation like that. She would have let him down with an even stride, at least.

When she swung open the unlocked door, Galinda was stood by her dresser, hair curled and dressed head to toe in a little jumpsuit-type item that was the colour of cherry blossoms. Elphaba caught half of her alarmed " _Hi-_ " as she slammed the door of their en-suite shut.

"Where have you been?" Galinda asked when Elphaba came out of the bathroom.

"Out with Fiyero."

She sat down on her bed to remove her shoes. Galinda's shoulders stiffened ever so slightly as she watched. Something residual, when she was caught off guard. Something that was mutually not a problem anymore. Still, Elphaba silently cursed herself.

"Oh," she was puzzled, peering at Elphaba through the mirror, contorting her eyebrows up into her pristinely powdered forehead so she could drag a mascara wand under them. "You look like you just watched someone die."

"I - yeah. Something happened. It was weird."

Galinda waited. Elphaba did too, waited for her brain to pull together a sentence that didn't make her feel completely hapless.

"You know what, nevermind. Can you tell me which ones go better with this outfit?" When Elphaba snapped back down to Earth, Galinda was holding up two pairs of strappy heels, one in black and the other a nude colour.

Elphaba nodded towards the rows of shoes lined up against the wall behind her. "Hm... are you sure you don't need more pink?"

Galinda rolled her eyes. "Pick one," she pouted.

Elphaba said, "Ugh, I don't know," and she slumped down onto her bed and peeled off her sweater. She was sweating from walking so fast. Embarrassing. "I forgot the handwash," she said belatedly.

Galinda was watching her curiously. She did that often, and Elphaba had had to make herself learn not to take it as an affront, like she did in those first few weeks. It was different from the _staring_ she was used to.

"Why don't you come out with us?"

"Out? As in - ?"

"As in to the club. You've been clubbing, right?" Galinda's eyes twinkled mischievously.

"Not really my thing," Elphaba said.

"Well, come this time! It'll be fun."

She was still holding those shoes up expectantly. Elphaba sat up. What else was she going to do, really? Cook a sad dinner and think about Fiyero and feel sorry for herself all evening, probably. And something about Galinda's beaming face made Elphaba feel like she might _not_ hate it this time.

Why the hell not? "If I say yes, will you promise not to squeal?"

Galinda pursed her lips and nodded seriously, before breaking into a dazzling smile. It was predictably adorable. "Get dressed!"

...

Elphaba picked out jeans and a silvery-grey top, one of Nessa's rejects. Then the usual boots for safety, to cancel out the shimmering shirt. They went to Fiona's house first to drink. It was a real house, an adult-house with a lawn (Galinda said they had squeezed five of them in to make the rent), and she liked how separate she felt from her own world in it. The only other house like this she had been in was her dad's. She mostly hung back and listened during their conversation, answering the odd question, providing the appropriate reactions and letting Galinda pass her drinks. She actually felt somewhat _less_ out of place in this gaggle of (mainly) girls for once, courtesy of her fresh dating woes. She huffed. She finally had dating woes.

Galinda's head swung back to her in question. She shook her head to say _nothing,_ automatically taking the next drink from her hands.

She had definitely been drunk at Shiz and she had been on nights out on the town (even discounting chaperoning Nessa) but never both at once. She didn't really know these people well enough for that, but Galinda's arm linked through hers as they walked into town gave her grounding. She wanted to see if Galinda could keep her promise of an enjoyable night, and she wanted to stop thinking about Fiyero. It was hard not to compare her two outings of the day, just to make herself feel a little better. Either way, she trusted Galinda with this.

Maybe because Galinda, she discovered, didn't actually drink that night at all. Thankfully, because Elphaba's own head felt too far from the ground. She was concentrating hard to step around the puddles on the street. They hung back a little from the others. She noted Galinda was the same height as her, in the black heels Elphaba had picked out in the end.

The Ozdust Ballroom was the only thing close to a proper club in this town; a royalty-themed restaurant during the day that became the ritual place for Shiz students to embarrass themselves on the nights; the chairs and tables stacked high next to the makeshift cloakroom on its upper floor. Elphaba followed Galinda up to put her coat away. When she got her locker number, the guy behind the counter pressed extra hard, apologetically, to get the dark green marker to show on her skin. Galinda closed her hand around that part of her wrist to lead her back down the stairs.

The music was obnoxiously loud, reverberating against her ears and echoing in her ribcage, and Elphaba reminded herself that that was the point. She didn't recognise many songs, though she hadn't expected to. They danced together, giggling, until Elphaba felt dizzy. This group was wild. They never let her sit still for long. She watched Galinda and Fiona gleefully conquer four songs in a row with dizzying energy, and strangely, it might have been the most relaxed she had seen either of them. And then it was one of the girls whose name she didn't know right now that dragged her up from her bar stool, while her boyfriend twirled a flushed Galinda next to her.

"You're having fun!" Galinda sneaked up behind her and screamed, throwing an arm around her shoulder. She was leaning happily, though it was Elphaba really who needed the support. She put her arms around Galinda's waist and hugged her, until they were half hugging and half dancing, and all at the same time becoming fully aware of how stupid it probably looked. They giggled into each other's shoulders and let go.

Elphaba stepped away and held Galinda's hands fast, beamed at her wide eyes and her smug, smiling glance. "I _told_ you, Elphie," she shouted again over the music. Elphaba led her by her sweaty hand into an empty spot right in the middle of the floor. The glitter she had put on at the entrance had smeared from Galinda's eyelids to her temple, making her look sweetly ethereal under the lights; like a charmingly dishevelled fairy creature. They danced.

The song ended, and in that split second, Elphaba's mood fell away. She blinked, and she was exhausted. Galinda caught her fumble by her arms as she fell forward.

"I'm going to get some water," she said, though she could have stayed there.

Galinda only moved to take her wrist instead. Elphaba followed her smirking glance - Fiona and her boyfriend were making out (sloppily) in the corner, and they could only wrinkle their noses at it for a second before they burst out laughing. Elphaba looked around but she couldn't find any of the others. Galinda took her to the bar. Elphaba stood behind her and tried not to lean into her as she asked for a glass of tap water; she was sure she could be asleep on her friend's shoulder in a wink.

They went outside, where small groups of people were gathered near the entrance, smoking and huddling, all practically naked for how cold it was. They constantly entered and left the dancefloor. Some of the tables on the restaurant patio were still out. They sat in one abandoned set of chairs with someone's plastic cup full of beer discarded between them. Most of it was splashed on the table, which Galinda squarely avoided, her hands in her lap.

Elphaba drank slowly, squeezing her eyes shut. The cold water made her stomach a little queasy from the shock of it.

Galinda let her finish, before saying, "So, tell me what's going on. Did something happen with Fiyero?"

She should have expected it.

"Nothing happened," Elphaba tried, but she was already trying to articulate her response, preparing her notes in her heavy head.

"You actually said _yes_ to clubbing."

She had done that. "Ughhh," she said.

Galinda took her hand and squeezed it under the table. Elphaba had the urge to be right next to her then, follow the touch of her cool skin and press their arms flush together for comfort or for balance or God knows what. She settled for a clumsy grab, so they had each other's wrists in their palms. It felt sturdy.

It was cold. It had snowed the day before, though it didn't settle. She wished they were back in the dorm, sitting like this over one end of the kitchen table, maybe.

"So, Fiyero?"

"I think he asked me out on a date," Elphaba admitted.

'Oh," Galinda said mildly. "Is this the first time?" She sounded weirdly like she was catching her breath.

"I think? I don't know." She laughed, but that made it hurt between her eyes, and she pinched the bridge of her nose.

"You don't know?" Galinda was incredulous, and after a moment she dissolved into laughter. She sat forward and shook Elphaba's shoulders, who willed herself not to throw up at the movement. "Oh, Elphie. What went wrong?"

"We went to this cafe… that wasn't what it was, we do that normally. But he wanted to have dinner afterwards in town, and he wanted to pay for it," she said miserably.

"And?" Galinda sounded distrustful of her mood.

Elphaba turned her chair properly towards her friend. "It just felt weird," she said into her hand. "Like I wasn't supposed to be doing that," she took a deep breath. The pounding bass from inside crept high in her throat. " - To _you._ "

Galinda opened and closed her mouth like a fish. "Elphie - I -I don't even like him anymore."

"I know. But it wasn't right. I'm not really _that_ kind of girl."

She must have looked absolutely pitiful, because Galinda sidled closer, her chair making a horrendous scraping noise on the concrete, until Elphaba could smell the perfume on her neck. "You deserve it, you know." She added, almost uncomfortably, "More than anyone I know."

Elphaba sighed. "Do you think I should try again?"

"It doesn't sound like you want to," Galinda said slowly, like she thought the notion might hurt her. "Oh, Elphie, I'm sorry. I know it can just be _off_ sometimes."

"It's okay," she mumbled. "It's me."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not cut out for it."

Galinda furrowed her eyebrows. "Like, you don't have the time?"

"No," Elphaba said, looking into her lap. She rubbed her forehead. "I've never dated someone like Fiyero before..." She glanced around with a little smile, "even this is weird for me, Galinda. Out with all you shiny popular kids."

Galinda rolled her eyes and grinned, but only for a moment. She didn't say anything, and only watched Elphaba, head tilted against the back of her seat. Was she sad? It was hard to tell, especially with the way Elphaba's head was starting to pound.

" _Have_ you dated before?" Galinda asked suddenly.

"Nope."

"Well, then I _might_ suggest you're giving up a little early."

Elphaba grumbled. She wasn't alive enough for this. She squeezed Galinda's wrist to change the subject.

"You didn't drink at all," she said curiously.

Galinda shrugged against her chair. "I don't usually. Well, not enough to get drunk."

Elphaba eyed her for elaboration.

"I don't know, I just don't like being so out of control." She shook her head, "Besides, you don't need to be drunk to dance!"

Elphaba recalled that night she had come back to the dorm after her mammoth essay. And Galinda definitely was drunk. So it had been even worse than she thought.

Galinda looked at her with lazy eyes. "Don't tell me - does that surprise you?"

"Hmm. Not at all, actually."

She looked taken aback. "Why?"

"You're so -" she closed her eyes and tried to find the right words for the particular vibe that Galinda emanated. " - put together. All perfect, all the time. It makes sense."

Galinda laughed. "You think that abominable dancing in there was anything close to _put together_?"

Elphaba leaned her elbows on the table and smiled into her hands, shaking her head. "No, definitely not." She stopped when she realised the movement could probably send her to sleep right now. "I think it was the most fun I've ever seen you have, though. I like you a little ruffled."

Galinda was as pink as her outfit under the lights of the patio. Elphaba grinned; she probably wouldn't have said that sober today, which felt like a kick of adrenaline.

Galinda huffed before adopting a teasing tone. "Well, if you like me ruffled, you should never have stopped being bitchy to me."

Elphaba gasped, in real surprise, which made Galinda laugh so hard that she gripped the rickety table for balance, getting beer all over her hands. She screeched and instinctively wiped them off in her lap, before her eyes widened - and it was Elphaba now who was cackling too hard to sit up straight.

"I think it's time to go home, Elphie," Galinda said dejectedly.

...

She texted Fiyero the next morning. Just a little apology for rushing off and an invitation to meet again. Casual. He didn't reply the whole day, and Elphaba tried to take it as a sign of his busy schedule. And not think of how he usually replied to her within minutes.

She wondered why she felt relieved, even as the thought of his dismay saddened her. She tried to rehearse what to say. It was early evening now, and Elphaba was preparing a presentation for the next day. Maybe if she talked to Fiyero so soon it was going to be a weight off both their shoulders, or maybe -

Her phone vibrated and Fiyero's name lit up the screen. She felt restless and she typed back quickly before she could regret it.

She met him twenty minutes later at the park on campus. Relief rushed through Elphaba's body the moment she saw the friendly lilt of his body, waiting for her on the bench. She walked up to him sheepishly.

"Hey."

"Hi." He made to stand up, and Elphaba waved him off and sat down in a rush.

He said, "Sorry I replied so late, I was out in town interviewing people for a group project. It was pretty hectic - I didn't check my messages for ages."

Elphaba took a long breath. Better to cut straight to it. "Listen, um - I'm so sorry about yesterday."

Fiyero seemed too surprised at her bluntness to say anything to that.

She continued, smoothing down her dress, "I literally ran away, that was stupid."

Fiyero smiled without humour, his eyes down. "It's okay," He laughed, "I feel stupid too, don't worry."

God. Elphaba met his eyes. It wasn't a dig. And it sort of sounded like he didn't think _she_ was being mean, either.

"It's just - Galinda. She's my- we're friends now."

Somehow, despite hardly three months of said friendship, it felt like the understatement of the century. But she couldn't prove that, couldn't quantify it with anything, so she kept it short. "It wouldn't be right to do that to her."

Fiyero watched her. A flicker of discomfort shadowed his face at the mention of his ex, but he looked like he was absorbing this with real consideration. There was something uncanny about them - him and Galinda - they reminded her of each other. She watched the easy lean of his forearm on the armrest of the bench, the kind of unassuming posture that still made her insides thrill in a minor way when she saw it, and tried not to take that thought to its logical conclusion.

She accepted the scrutiny. There had to be something else, she knew as well as Fiyero did - something nagged her, in the back of her head. Galinda's comfort on its own wasn't a good enough a reason.

But why did she need even _need_ a reason? For Fiyero? Or not for Fiyero, for herself? Did she owe it to him, because of their friendship?

It didn't matter. Fiyero sat forward and put his hand on her shoulder and she felt like she could burst with gratitude.

"I get it," he said. "You're amazing, Elphaba."

They had understood each other without understanding _it_. She wanted to stay and talk, but Fiyero took his leave quite soon after. He needed a day to lick his wounds, it was obvious.

Still, it bothered her as she went back to her dorm. It bothered her while she finished up her work, and though she found a brief respite in her millionth reread of her favourite chapter of the new book, she still couldn't pinpoint the unease she felt all day, despite how _okay_ things went with Fiyero, and she went to bed early. She left the lamp on for Galinda, wherever she might have been.

Galinda came back around midnight. Elphaba was still awake. She asked her about her day. The sewing on the cheap foam covering on her headboard had come loose. She pulled the thread further until it snapped away with a sharp noise as she listened to Galinda recount her day.

"I've been at a friend's music show," Galinda said with a yawn.

"Did you have fun?" Elphaba said, mostly to the piece of thread looped in her fingers.

"Yeah...I guess," Galinda deliberated slowly. "It just ran way too late," she switched off the lamp. "How was Fiyero?" Elphaba had told her about her plan to see him on their walk home last night.

She lit up, despite her overall mood. "Good. Really good. He didn't try to ask me to dinner again, and I think we'll be okay."

"Oh, that's good," Galinda hummed. "Just give him a little time." She seemed zapped of her energy compared to the day before.

The next thing Elphaba knew, it was morning. She didn't feel like she had slept a wink, and she had a freaking presentation to do in an hour.


	7. Chapter 7

The boat party was actually pretty decent in the end, which surprised Galinda because of the way she had felt a like a madman rushing around, putting it together in the last week of the semester. She had hardly stepped back to look at the bigger picture. But it had worked out. Sure, in hindsight, she probably could have gotten a better deal on the drinks, considering how many people ended up coming. The booking should have started and ended later, too, because of how late everyone had arrived. It was her and Fiona alone with the waiters for almost two hours. Not that she minded the extra time to get the decorations just right, but time was literally money. Other than those minor considerations, however, it felt like a perfect way to send off a pretty good first semester.

A surprising first semester. And she wasn't necessarily thinking about how well she had been doing with regards to her studies or any of her clubs, given the temperament she had started the year with.

Galinda stepped into the shower, belatedly noticing and taking the last few pins out of her hair as she ran her hands through it. The room was empty when she came back, well after midnight. Elphie's desk was cleared of most of its usual contents - her laptop, beaded pencil case, drinking bottle all gone. It looked strangely vacant without those simple few items. In the bathroom, too, Galinda couldn't help but notice the swift absence of her supermarket shampoo ( _two-in-one_ , she shuddered) and her toothbrush.

The party _was_ fun. But in hindsight, she would probably have rather have spent her last Friday evening over hot chocolate with Elphie. Galinda had _really_ wanted to discuss any proper developments with Fiyero (or lack thereof) before she left, not to mention rant to her friend about the mess of society meetings she had this week. Her co-presidents had flaking and coming back to beg for duties down to an art. The meetings were almost worth it for Elphie's sharp-witted assessment of them afterwards. Still she was glad that Elphie had finally decided that she would go home for the holidays, because really, no one should have been living in this dump in the dead of winter.

It didn't matter too much anyway. The kudos from various classmates and friends, the glitzy dress she had bought just for the occasion, and the chance to take a few arresting new profile pictures against the serene backdrop of the lake, more than made up for her strange mood.

Because she was in a strange mood. She had felt a little off last night, at Daisy's band's show. She had put it down to the dreary folk-indie-whatever music, actually; that sudden compulsion to get up and get out, and _walk_ somewhere, or do something, keep herself busy busy busy. But the feeling didn't wear off.

She had spent almost two hours getting ready tonight, when she knew she could normally do a full face like that in twenty minutes tops.

She scrubbed hard and tried to think. Maybe it was just end-of-semester blues. Still.

The lukewarm water running down her back helped cool her, it cleared her mind, even if normally she would be ready to go downstairs and complain about the heating (and boy, did the heating here malfunction frequently).

She thought it started yesterday. Or at least, she tried to put a date to it; make it concrete. What happened yesterday?

It couldn't be Elphaba and Fiyero - she wouldn't let it be, not _now_ after this long. She sighed and rubbed her eyes and her hands came away with oily smudges of product.

...

The restlessness followed her home. It was nice to be back in her parents home for a few weeks, though. And the time passed surprisingly quickly.

When her Dad had said he would put her in charge of events management at the hotel over her winter break, Galinda had been delighted - of course she had agreed immediately and graciously.

It was premature. She didn't really stop to think for a second what kind of event she would be managing here - their hometown housed one of the smaller hotels in the chain, i an inn, really - while the flagship, her parents' pride and joy, was an hour's drive away in the city.

So here she was, two weeks in, overseeing the third kids' birthday party this month. There were only so many times she could ring up princesses and clowns for hire and order glitter party bags before the novelty wore off.

Galinda sighed in thinly-veiled frustration. She was meeting with a client in the reception, for the _third_ time since she had confirmed all aspects of her booking. Galinda's notepad was perfectly poised in her lap, but she couldn't stop her leg jumping in impatience. She crossed it under the other, clearing her throat with a smile.

"As I've already said, it's too late to change the catering now," she said slowly. This client, a woman who surprised Galinda with a different - yes, _different_ \- set of horribly overdrawn eyebrows every time Galinda met with her, had decided to throw a full-blown hundred-guest bash for her kid's fifth birthday. Galinda thought she must have cleaned out every nursery in the town. And right now, they had an emergency on their hands: her darling daughter had changed her mind on the most crucial element - she hated blue now, the cake had to be purple.

The lady crooned, eyes wide open in alarm. "What do you suggest? Annie's so upset." Apparently, she needed face-to-face handholding for every tumultuous turn this event threw at her.

Galinda drew her smile up carefully. "If you ask me, it's not worth the extra you would be paying - and it's unlikely they would be able to change the order on such short notice, anyway. We can work with the decoration - I can switch up the balloons and stars with more purple?" She offered.

Thank every conceivable God she agreed. Galinda had a few hours before the shopping centre in town closed; it was far too late to order from the manufacturer.

Daddy should have been paying her for this.

In half an hour, she was wandering around the only party shop in the mall. She picked up ten bags of metallic purple balloons and dumped them in her basket. A quick glance around the cheap store gave her the rest - some streamers, a banner, and a few rolls of tinsel for good measure; all garishly purple. This was going to be her worst-looking one so far.

She was thirsty. A gingerbread snowflake latte had to be the first port of call after this. The seasonal posters hanging in the coffee shops in town had caught her eye on the way here, as they always did. And she missed the coffee routine she and Elphaba had fallen into in the last couple of months.

They were out of gingerbread snowflake at the cafe a few shops down, but cinnamon sparkle was not a bad second choice. Galinda sighed and closed her eyes as she took a sip. She had definitely earned this.

She opened them again: the sign opposite her, peeking out of the town's only gigantic department store, hadn't been here in the summer. She stepped outside to get a better look and almost jumped in excitement.

 _MADAME MORRIBLE'S MAKEUP EMPORIUM,_ read the golden, faux-handwritten sign. It couldn't be here, surely? She had to go all the way out to Emerald City for this brand! She rushed, almost forgetting the bag of balloons and trinkets in her seat before she sheepishly returned to collect them. She almost expected to see Ari here, raising his eyebrows at her over the counter.

Now, Madame Morrible's wasn't the highest-end stuff, but it certainly had the most variety. She remembered the Halloween party in her first year of Shiz. She had spent days looking for the perfect baby blue shade of body glitter for her fairy costume before a last-ditch trip to Madame Morrible's had saved her. And her more adventurous friends swore by it. She couldn't have dreamed the consistency and staying power of Daisy's signature turquoise eyeliner.

Galinda eyed the posters of long-limbed models just inside the entrance and leaned back on her heels. She didn't _need_ anything right now - could she really justify it, especially after her most recent online shopping binge?

The store beckoned her. One quick look wouldn't do any harm.

She stopped short in front of the first row of products in the front of the store. The price tags showed exactly how new and shiny and radical they were supposed to be.

An idea popped into her head. She picked up one of the little tubs closest to her. Creamy, matte, and forest green. It was supposed to be a gel eyeshadow, by the looks of it, but...

She couldn't… could she? Would it be rude?

She could just... pretend it was for herself. Elphie wouldn't be able to prove otherwise. But even so, she had a good feeling about this. Galinda wasn't fourteen and she wasn't callous (not anymore) _and_ she knew what she was doing: she was pretty sure she could make a convincing argument on that basis. She thought carefully about what she already had in her own make-up bag.

She carefully sifted through it in her mind, whatever would flatter and whatever she could double up, and bought the rest - a foundation, a concealer, a palette that she could make work for a little contour, and just because she really couldn't help herself imagining how it would look, the gold version of Daisy's felt eyeliner. She walked to her car with the bags jostling against her hip, making a ruckus in her stomach.

...

The party itself went smoothly. It was beautiful, and well-decorated, of course, and Mrs Eyebrows looked terrifically pleased as she kept kneeling down and pointing her daughter towards various guests. The poor kid escaped her grasp and fled at every chance she could get. She barely glanced at the balloons and was equally oblivious smashing a handful of cake against her face while her mother gasped and tittered nervously with a napkin.

At last, it seemed to be wrapping up. Galinda looked at her phone: only half an hour until the end of the booking. The knee-height crowd had thinned considerably, and the few parents slumping in chairs waiting for the current round of Pass the Parcel to finish were looking pretty weary by now. The lucky relative - an older sister, she assumed - leading the whole thing looked ready to drop dead. Mrs Eyebrows had disappeared with the birthday girl after Annie poured a cup of coke the size of her face straight down into her expensive dress.

It was more than excessive. Galinda wondered what Elphie would have to say about such an extravagant show of… whatever. Status. She leaned against the wall and imagined it. The sidelong scowl and the knitted eyebrows in her familiar green face.

It was late by the time she went home; home being next door, through the back entrance of both buildings. There were one or two customers milling about in the lobby area as she clocked out; a woman in a suit reading something intently on her phone on the sofa. Her parents' patrons (most of them) were of fashionable ilk; business people that came in and out. Galinda wondered where this woman had been yesterday, where she would be tomorrow, and if she lived in Emerald City and how quaint she might have thought this place was in comparison.

At home that night, Mommy gave her an extra large slice of pie for dessert. She was still convinced that Galinda wasn't eating enough for some reason.

"Darling, you need to start watching yourself," she implored. "Especially the stress this year, it's your final year - it creeps up on you."

Galinda chewed her cherry almond pie and nodded dutifully.

"I know it can be hard," she said, with a hand stretched out across the table to Galinda now. "Especially with your first big break-up, you might not realise just how much -"

Galinda had to speak through her mouthful. "I'm fine. It's not - it's not that," She swallowed. "It's nothing, I was just a bit stressed with all the assignments and extra readings at the start, but I'm fine now, I promise."

Her mother nodded in the most unconvinced manner. She waited and watched for a moment, before dropping her voice. "You've been a little quiet, too, that's all. It's not like you."

Galinda could say nothing to this; she cast her eyes down into her bowl. "Just a headache," she mumbled.

She was forced to take a herbal tea to bed for her supposed three-week-long headache, but thankfully that was the extent of that conversation.

She got into bed and scrolled through her usual - practically wincing at the pictures and updates of her friends eating and posing in different parts of the world, or just traipsing around the city. She had to remind herself the experience she was getting now was worth it.

She wanted to check on someone that had come to her mind a lot today.

Galinda opened up the chat box before thinking twice and closing it. Elphaba wasn't the most expressive behind a screen, or very quick at replying. She turned to the most trusted method.

Elphie's Instagram updated maybe once a month, according to its owner. Her Facebook account was in even worse shape, stuck in time, maybe five years ago, judging by the atrociously bad filter on her profile picture and the braces obscuring her awkward smile. She scrolled quickly, but it was sparse - a few pictures tagged by Nessa and a couple of messages through the years from the same few relatives which Elphaba replied to with predictable curtness. She switched back to Instagram.

How had she never thought of doing this before? All her friends got a good old-fashioned social media stalking (in good faith, so it didn't count as stalking) but it had never crossed her mind to include Elphaba on that list. She happened to exist almost on a totally different plane in Galinda's mind; their room and their library corners and their cafe evenings an alternate universe from the rest of Galinda's flurry of friends and activities.

Of course, she wasn't anything like them. She was like a vacation from them; implacably different. An intriguing, sarcastic, passionate and compassionate distraction from the rest of her life. Galinda couldn't find where she fit, and yet she preferred it that way.

These were mostly pictures of places - an open field, the arch of a museum building, graffiti on the sidewalk - hallmarks of a person whose time was spent mostly alone. There was nothing sad about the photos, though. They felt deliberate and careful and overall well-crafted, and a tender surprise bloomed in Galinda's chest - this was the girl who, after all, handed in a Powerpoint presentation in regular, black Calibri font. The photos were serene in a way she hadn't expected from Elphaba. The bold-text rebellious slogans were peppered in there too, of course. And then there was - a cat?!

It was the _cutest_ little black kitten Galinda had ever seen, stretched out on a bed and staring confusedly at the camera.

She switched to their chat box and typed a quick message ( _cat?!_ ). Crazy girl. Only Elphie could talk about her essays and her books, her lousy dad and even her dead mom; basically _anything_ when prompted the right way, yet fail to mention that she had a cat.

She smiled and pulled the covers up over her smile.

No. It definitely wasn't her and Fiyero that was the cause of Galinda's mood. She couldn't let it be. She had something far more important, and that was the thought she would sleep on. She switched off the light and settled in. It was cold this far north, but the tea had helped.

 _Mrs Eyebrows was in a good mood. Annie was behaving, therefore she was too. Galinda was about to turn and go back to reception to usher in any late guests. She had to do that this very second, or something bad would happen - she could feel it pressing on her chest. She managed to turn on a single heel before the crash came._

 _Mrs Eyebrows screamed._

 _Galinda went to check. It was only a jug of juice that had fallen off the table. Let me get someone to clean that up right now, she said. But she couldn't smile. She couldn't smile. Suddenly another jug wobbled off the side, and crashed onto the floor. She looked around. They were all on the very edge. Why? Who had put them there? I'll go get - she started, but when she turned Mrs Eyebrows wasn't there anymore. Nobody was, the whole room had emptied like the place wasn't even open for business. Galinda stepped over broken glass, it made a crunch under her heel and she winced at the ugly noise._

 _The whole hall was deserted except for Fiyero standing next to her, pulling on her arm. Let's go, he said. It's late._

 _She saw Mrs Eyebrows on the sofa at the reception as they were leaving. They had to be walking on tiptoes so she wouldn't hear them leave; that was of utmost importance. Fiyero led her._

 _It was inexplicably light outside; already dawn. She followed Fiyero out of the back entrance, back in the next one, and up the two flights of stairs to their apartment. Tall buildings weren't allowed outside of campus in Shiz; a council rule to keep the place all authentic and cozy like when the college was first built._

 _Elphaba was inside, sitting in the kitchen on her laptop. She wore a shirt that Galinda knew belonged to Fiyero. Galinda sat down opposite her and Fiyero gave her a glass of water. The stairs had been long. She couldn't breathe._

 _Fiyero and Elphaba continued like she wasn't there. He went back to his book, open on the counter. Elphaba tilted her screen to show him something and they both laughed. Galinda wanted to ask what was funny, but a knock interrupted her._

 _Instantly, Fiyero was up and looking through the window. He didn't have to tell her for her to know it was Mrs Eyebrows. She knocked hard a few more times. Galinda stood with a heavy heart. Literally. I'll go deal with it, she said. She had to hold the rail all the way back down the stairs. They used to have an ancient elevator in here, but her parents had gotten rid of it, and never ended up replacing it, so they could have the exercise or something like that._

 _When she came back upstairs, she saw that Fiyero was making Elphaba smile, but she couldn't hear the conversation. She strained her ears but their voices remained muted. She kept trying until she felt the panic rise._

 _The room was so much smaller than before._

 _They laughed and laughed but she couldn't hear it. Then Fiyero put his arm around her, pushed her against the counter. Galinda stared down at the floor like her life depended on it, but she still saw the back of Fiyero's head. She couldn't see their faces._

 _They were kissing or talking or laughing and Galinda couldn't tell; couldn't leave either. Fiyero turned but he didn't seem to register her. He closed the door almost like an afterthought, and Galinda, surprised, stepped back so it didn't catch her._

 _They went back to it. Galinda heard it through the wall. She heard her friend's laughter, the roughness and the richness, the way it spilled out of her like a shock. Fiyero laughed too; she wished he would shut up. She wished Elphaba had talked to her, had acknowledged her._

 _They weren't laughing anymore. A sigh, followed by a sharp breath. Fiyero was whispering something._

 _Then Elphie made a long, dizzying sound that went like a bolt of lightning down Galinda's spine._

She woke up with a real headache this time; with _that_ ringing in her ears like a broken record; the utterly impossible notion that she couldn't have imagined, except she had.


	8. Chapter 8

Elphaba craned her neck over the back of her chair and glanced out of the window over Galinda's bed, not for the first time that afternoon. It was snowing outside. Little flakes ambled in the air before gently falling and dissolving into the wet ledge of the windowsill. Some had settled on the ground last night, creating a minor slip hazard, as the sign downstairs said, (and of course her dad had made sure to complain thoroughly about it when he pulled up outside the building, after making Elphaba haul out Nessa's suitcases while sitting idle in the car himself.)

It had been an empty kind of day, liminal and strange, in the way that being on campus before or after the semester took place always was. She had unpacked. Shopped for groceries. Read a little.

She tapped her foot against the carpet. A blank piece of paper lay under her hands - what was soon going to be this semester's timetable. Or not. Maybe she would wait, and discreetly copy Galinda's layout from her laminated schedule pinned to her board, like she did last semester, though she wouldn't have admitted it then. Galinda's notes, schedules, and photos tacked or pegged or pinned across her side of the room were all impeccably neat. Either way, what she wasn't going to do was print out the illogical, near-illegible stew of acronyms and abbreviations that was Shiz's pre-made student timetable.

Elphaba always took much fewer classes this side of the holidays, which she relished. It was essentially more free time, since she was a tried and tested crammer when it came to exams and dissertations. She would fill the extra time with her favourite things: more books from the library, or downloaded onto her phone; give all the campaigns she had a hand in a push (they had already managed to set a date meeting with the Board over the cleaning staff pay, no small thanks to Fiyero charming almost everyone in their year - and all the girls below - to sign the petition); she would spend more time with Nessa, suddenly and even painfully aware of the prospect of having her sister near for only a few more months - because she had no intention of moving back home after school, at all, ever.

She glanced at the window again. And then at the paper, and then she got up, tugging her cardigan closer over her chest. The heating was broken, as it ever was. It had been a while since her last cup of tea.

In the kitchen she stirred with one hand and texted with the other.

 _still arriving this afternoon?_

Galinda replied immediately: _yes! can't wait to see you elphie!_ \- followed by a long string of different heart and sparkle emojis. Elphaba took it as a proxy for a skip and a jump and a squeeze, which it was.

She smiled. She felt strangely light, like she had never yet had at the beginning of a semester at Shiz. It felt like a good way to end her time here. She took a sip from her mug and sighed. It was her favourite green tea, a stash the neighbours had given them after bringing too much of it back from abroad somewhere far from Oz (and her dad had scoffed - _do they think we're a charity case?_ ) She had brought it from home yesterday after missing it for months - that, plus a few things to watch and read and reread (she obviously had to refresh her mind before meeting the Wizard - which was in a few months!) and an extra rucksack stuffed with summer clothes. These were the fruits of her travel home.

It had been a truly uneventful few weeks. Her dad had been swamped in a seasonal surge of council work. For Nessa this meant he couldn't give her as much time as she wanted, to drive her around to the mall, a coffee shop, or a friends' house. For Elphaba it meant she had almost every household chore under her responsibility: cleaning the toilets, taking out the copious waste from her dad's take-out and whiskey-heavy lifestyle, grocery shopping, and cooking for herself and Nessa. All but the gardening, which he had hired someone for.

Elphaba didn't mind too much. It passed the time. She had spent her free time taking walks around the neighbourhood, doing snatches of work for her dissertation, or reading. Always with Chistery curled up into her chest, his soft black ears twitching for attention every so often. It was good downtime, she had to admit.

Normally, between her dad's house and Shiz, one was only marginally better than the other; the difference was especially small if she wasn't in a mood to be going out and putting the work in planning things with her society members - one of the only things that kept her sane here. But this time, the difference was palpable. Something inside her fluttered with anticipation, with expectation, for the simple feeling of catching up with Galinda tonight, or Fiyero tomorrow, even if she had nothing much to report on her end.

She turned to the long kitchen window. The snow had turned to rain. She wasn't in a mood to go outside, not when she could barely warm up in here.

She opened up the chat box again and scrolled up past the million or so pictures of Chistery she had taken for Galinda - each accompanied by a dedicated row of hearts and a plea for a different angle or backdrop. She bit down on a smile and scrolled faster - she was looking for the message where Galinda had given her the code for an offer at their go-to takeout website. The perks of having a dozen different retail loyalty cards.

Next year, she would definitely find a place that allowed pets - maybe Galinda could -

There it was. She copied it down, tapped out a quick _I'm ordering fried rice don't eat_ at the bottom of the page, and then did just that.

The next couple of hours went slowly.

Then Galinda burst through the door in a flurry of wet and wind, and actually, maybe they had gone too fast.

She was soaked from head to toe, bouncing on the spot like the movement itself could dry her off. "Elphie!" she gasped. "Downstairs, my mom's got another suitcase. It's pouring outside!" Elphaba nodded, wide-eyed, and leapt off her seat.

Downstairs, a tall, thin woman with coiffed white-blond hair was carefully wiping her glasses on a tissue with little success. Galinda's signature rose gold suitcase - one that Elphaba had loathed on sight just months ago - stood next to her.

Elphaba stopped short near the bottom of the staircase. "Hi," she said, feeling gangly. Then she remembered to hop down the last few steps.

Galinda's mother was caught off guard. "Oh - sorry - hi, dear. You must be Galinda's roommate," she put the glasses back on, droplets of water clinging to them still. "Do you mind helping me - it's just _pouring_ down, this mess is just from walking from the car," she gestured down to her body, her soaked slacks and long pea coat.

"Of course," Elphaba said quickly. She took the handle of the suitcase and wheeled it closer towards the elevator.

"She's - upstairs," she called out awkwardly, before the elevator doors closed on her face. The suitcase was ridiculously heavy, she had to lean it on the metal wall to give her hand a break. She blinked.

Galinda's mother - she looked so - _normal_. And also, very much a person. There. Present.

Well. She knew _logically_ that her friend hadn't popped out fully formed from the glossy pages of a business-chic magazine, but Galinda was certainly good at giving the impression that she did.

Weird.

Inside the room, Galinda had already changed into pajamas, and she was busy towelling her hair. Her face lit up when she saw Elphaba again.

"Rice?" she asked, eyes wide, by way of greeting.

Elphaba laughed at her. "On its way."

Her mother came in, nodded and smiled politely at Elphaba again, and began sorting something from her own purse to Galinda's on the desk.

"Mommy, meet Elphie! Well - I guess you met her."

"Elphaba," she corrected feebly, looking at her toes.

Her mother smiled, "Yes. Very nice to meet you, dear. Galinda's always talking about you. Says you're keeping her straight."

"Oh, um," Elphaba mumbled and looked sideways. She felt Galinda putter about behind her, probably eyeing her desk, the whole room, as if to check everything was in its place. Elphaba shifted. It felt - strange. To be taking up this space between them.

"Did you arrive long ago? Your parents brought you?"

"This morning," Elphaba said, at the same time as Galinda said loudly, peering at her purse to confirm something, "Okay, all good."

Her mother was looking around the room with mild interest, but always coming back to her daughter's face, fondly. She brushed down the wrinkles of Galinda's freshly-unfolded pajamas from her shoulders. Elphaba politely took her leave and decided to go to the kitchen to let them say goodbye. The food was going to be here soon.

Later, they ate almost in silence on the corpse rug, despite the chatter Elphaba had anticipated from her friend. Galinda took big mouthfuls, rolling her eyes for effect.

"Ugh, I haven't eaten since breakfast," she said.

Her hair was still darkened a little with rain, the short wisps that escaped her hair grips were starting to curl up around the edges of her forehead. Elphaba's fingers twitched and she fiddled with her fork.

"How much was it?" Galinda asked suddenly.

Elphaba shook her head and leaned back into the bed frame. "I don't accept payment for feeding starving children," she said.

"So compassionate," Galinda crooned from under her lashes. "Such a humanitarian." She poured herself more water, balancing the glass delicately with the sides of her palms. Her nails were painted a shimmery white, like the snow earlier. "We just need some little lonely orphans to complete the picture."

Elphaba half-raised her hand with a suppressed laugh. Galinda's eyes bulged. "Oh my _god_ \- your mom, I didn't mean -"

Elphaba was snickering. "No, no." She paused for a few more bites. "I mean - I _wish_ ," she said.

Galinda blinked, absolutely incredulous. The look on her face made Elphaba laugh even harder, until she was actually cackling, and she had to put her bowl down to control herself, and then Galinda did too.

They ended up staying up well past midnight, one round of hot tea following another. Galinda had a colourful assortment of chocolates and marshmallows and fancy blends from her parents' hotel's restaurant-slash-shop and they went through half the stash, pulling random anecdotes and observations from their time at home.

Galinda was glowing, energized, though she avoided Elphaba's eyes so often that Elphaba almost brought it up. She chalked it down to the fact that maybe Galinda was still embarrassed about her comment from earlier.

Elphaba thought fleetingly about how she had a 9AM meeting with her academic advisor the next day. But that was morning, and this was now.

...

The next couple of weeks were uneventful. Elphaba was focused on her dissertation, she wanted the bulk of it out of the way before spring break just to stop her adviser's bleating about _time management_ , and so her free time felt earned.

The same couldn't be said for Galinda. Something _was_ off about her since coming back, Elphaba could tell. She dithered. She came to the library less and less, even when Elphaba tried to bribe her with the promise of frequent coffee breaks and pictures of Chistery as a kitten. She was too busy even to braid Elphaba's hair while she ranted about the antics of her assorted fellow core committee members (it was therapeutic, she said. Elphaba did have to admit she tugged a little hard sometimes.) It had been a routine that Elphaba realised belatedly how comfortably they had fallen into.

Some of the time she just stared. And some of _those_ times she stared at Elphaba. And sure, Elphaba was used to that from strangers, but it felt so _wrong_ when Galinda did it, even if her friend meant no harm, and her mind was clearly absent in these instances.

When strangers did it, she swatted the minor irritation away from her consciousness. Like a fly. With Galinda she felt scrutinised, hot, like she wanted to crawl out and escape her own body.

After her tumultuous teenagehood, after the alarming first few weeks of Fiyero, she thought she was _over_ that sort of feeling. She didn't enjoy it.

Elphaba hoped so hard that whatever was going on with Galinda, it wasn't about Fiyero again. Galinda didn't deserve the heartache. Or maybe it was her studies, the same anxiety from the beginning of the year? She decided she would ask soon.

Elphaba was in the library, drafting an email to Dr Dillamond, when Galinda suddenly cleared her throat from the seat across her. It wasn't their usual spot; the table was wide and low, as ancient as everything else here in the third floor Founders' Section, and Galinda was actually quite far from her. It was too cold downstairs. Really, if they weren't paying for heating and they weren't paying cleaners, what the hell was Shiz doing with her tuition fees?

"Elphie," she said flatly, over the top of her laptop. "What if I told you I had a really weird dream."

Elphaba leaned forward. Galinda sat still, like she was grateful for the literal wide berth.

She continued with a small laugh. "Okay," she said, "and _don't_ judge me. Don't be mad. I can't control my dreams."

Elphaba grew even more curious, drawn into Galinda's contagious laughter, her strange blend of hesitation and eagerness.

"Okay," she said. "Spill."

Galinda twisted her mouth this way and that.

"Come on," Elphaba said, smirking now.

Galinda looked into the table. "I um, had um, a sex dream about Fiyero," she said all at once.

Elphaba's mouth gaped open. She put a hand over it. She didn't know what she was expecting, but this was at the same time _way_ less and _way_ more than whatever she had in mind. "And?" She shook her head, then admonished, half-joking, " _Glinda._ "

"That's it," Galinda said shortly. She looked suddenly nervous, hands cupped together and drawn close to her body on the table.

"Really?"

"Yeah. And. I don't know? He was just there, in the _hotel_ , Elphie." Now she giggled. "I don't why it had to be _there_."

Elphaba felt her own face get hot, her mind already unwittingly filling in the blanks. "I think you spent too much time at the hotel," she said frankly.

Galinda laughed again. It was a bizarre sound - edgy, high and too clear. Dreams were always weird, and this wasn't that embarrassing, as far as dreams went. They had dated for so long, after all.

She didn't know why Galinda was beginning to look as red as a tomato. It made her wonder about things she really shouldn't have.

"Are you sure that's it?' Elphaba said, to draw herself away from her own thoughts.

Galinda was nodding before she had finished. "I'm sure. I don't know, I just had to tell someone."

They stared at each other. Galinda's mouth twitched. They cracked up again.

"Anyway," she said slowly. She clicked something on her screen then swivelled around in her chair, eyes scanning the room looking for something. Elphaba tried to follow her gaze.

"There!" Galinda said. She lifted her chin at a large flyer - poster, really - pinned to the notice board near the entrance. She chewed her lip, typing fast. "We definitely need more in the library."

Elphaba peered at the flyer, squinting. _ANNUAL SHIZ LEAVERS SPRING BALL,_ it read in sleek, confident all-caps. There was little else on the sheet; a dainty frame and a few sparkles along with the details of the event. The black paper and silver lettering was already a good indication of how big (and expensive) a deal this probably was.

Elphaba hadn't heard of it before herself, though that hardly surprised her.

"You're not organising," Elphaba observed. She would have heard the details by now if that were the case.

"No," Galinda said, head resting sideways in her hand. "That's why I'm excited to go. I helped them out with the advertising, though." She snorted. "You should have _seen_ how those things looked before I redesigned them."

Elphaba asked, "When is it?"

"Next month! Will you come?"

"Sure," Elphaba said lightly. Why not? It was probably time she went to one of these things, just to tick off the college experience.

Galinda actually sat up in her chair in surprise. Elphaba was regaled with a dazzling smile.

"What?" she said.

Galinda only gave her a very pointed look in reply, before flashing another grin. Elphaba decided she was fine with that.

...

It was raining hard that night. Elphaba went to bed early, the sound against the metal fire escape outside their window proved too distracting to study.

Galinda was finishing up a conversation with her phone against her shoulder and getting ready for bed at the same time. She stepped out of her clothes, half shielded by the door of her wardrobe.

In the lamplight Elphaba caught a glimpse of the naked slope of her shoulder, and she looked away deliberately. Looked again.

Galinda was golden in the cheap yellow light. Elphaba saw the curve of her spine. The flesh above her hips, which for some reason, felt more naked than anything else.

It was a sight she had registered a hundred times by now. But she felt her face burn, before she was even conscious of it. She saw Fiyero's hands there, pulling that hip against the cushy mattress of a fancy Upper Upland hotel room.

Elphaba covered her face, her heart suddenly beating stupidly loud. What the hell was wrong her?

Galinda turned to pull her earrings out and when she leaned down to place them in the drawer, her shining hair fell into her collarbone, fell into the slope of her breast, and Elphaba felt her own body warm with embarrassment from head to toe, and she was so damn thankful she couldn't see more.

She saw golden hair spilled against ornate golden wallpaper, splaying, melting, until there wasn't any difference between the two, and Fiyero (though now it didn't _have_ to be Fiyero), head tilting with rapt attention like how he talked about reading one of those books, pressing his face into the hollow of her neck. Galinda's head tipped back. Her expression all gold.

In her uncomfortable haze Elphaba swallowed down the guilt but it was too late, being encroached fast by something else. Her brain was hooked on the image, at the same time spiralling far beyond it.

It was insane. This was insane.

Galinda's showers were long but Elphaba didn't need the time. She didn't actually think of them during the act - of course not, _God_ \- but the generic figures in her head were not so generic that she didn't feel ashamed afterwards, breathing hard and willing herself to be calm.

She leapt out of bed. Made some tea. Went back under the covers.

The intrusion - of _that_ into her thoughts, of Galinda's privacy; she didn't know what to think.

Elphaba burrowed right into her blanket, smelling the fresh detergent smell - newly-washed fabric for a new semester; feeling the cool wall where her elbow poked out to touch it, and willing, _willing_ her brain to think of literally anything else.

Galinda came out of the shower in a flurry of steam. The three longest minutes in the world passed before she turned off her hair dryer and her lamp. "Are you asleep? Elphie?"

Elphaba mumbled to show that she was.


	9. Chapter 9

"I do _not_ sound like that," Elphaba scowled, pursing her lips to stop herself laughing.

Galinda, her eyebrows drawn together and tone indignant at the end of her pitch-perfect impression of her roommate (if she did say so herself) drooped her shoulders in disappointment.

"I thought it was perfect," she pouted. "You're a harsh critic, Elphie. I'd like to see you do better."

Elphaba put the mug of tea in her hand down next to her and sat up. She batted her eyelashes at Galinda comically, raising her brows in a vacant expression before dropping into a smile. " _Elphie_ ," she said in a sing-song voice, " _I'm positively sure you'll do amazing on the test today!_ " She flicked her hair back exuberantly, but the effect was lost given that it lay in one thick, long braid that slapped anticlimactically against the bed frame before flopping against her back again.

Galinda burst into laughter, covering her mouth with one hand and leaning on the rug with the other. Elphaba joined her only a moment later, clearly unable to hold the impression for more than a few seconds.

" _Okay_ ," Galinda said finally through her fingers, trying to contain herself. "That was - it was-" she rested her chin in her hand, "I'm not sure whether to be impressed or _offended._ "

Elphaba was still giggling. She resurfaced with a wide, gleeful smile. Galinda stared.

"Elphie!" Galinda said, almost like an admonishment, "You look so _cute_ when you actually smile!"

Elphie's eyes widened - and Galinda's stomach sunk for a split second, wondering if she had said something strange, before her friend shook her head and smiled a long smile, leaning her head back against the bed frame.

Galinda grinned back at her, reassured.

"You know, I'm gonna let you have that," Elphaba drawled, "but if a _man_ had said that to me-"

Galinda rolled her eyes and threw a piece of foil-wrapped chocolate at her from the bowl in front of her (leftovers from a networking event she had helped host - Galinda always brought the sweets home. Everyone had their vices.) "Oh, don't start."

It was probably nearing midnight, Galinda guessed, from the last time she had checked her phone. She was sat on the floor with her roommate, tea and chocolates and a now-forgotten stream of _Wizomania_ running on Elphie's laptop. They had dragged Galinda's rug into the narrow space between their beds - neither of the beds would actually hold two whole people - and decided to celebrate their completed assignments the best way they could on a rainy spring day.

Galinda picked up another square of chocolate and unwrapped it carefully. It was adorned with the label _Ozian Dreams Restaurant and Cafe_ in a spidery purple font - one of the establishments that had come to recruit eager, nervous Shiz students into their training schemes. Galinda had signed up for the emails.

"Elphie?" She asked suddenly, breaking the chocolate in two, then three little pieces.

Elphaba did a nod-and-hum, so relaxed between the admittedly excessive tufts of the rug that it made Galinda warm.

"What are you going to do after graduation?"

"I think I want to go to Emerald City."

Elphie smiled after she said it - she must have noticed the way Galinda's eyes lit up at those words.

Galinda knew that that's where _she_ was going, no doubt about it. Maybe if Elphie wanted - they could go together. Wouldn't that be nice?

"- but I don't know. I also want to get another degree at some point."

"Huh," Galinda said. It made sense - Elphie was really good at her studies, and not just good at assignments, like most people. She was good in the way that often resulted in back-and-forth emails and discussions with her teachers; she would come back to the room from office hours, still thinking out loud to herself about whether _this_ professor was really right about _that_ and on and on. The girl had _amazing_ energy, a totally different kind of energy to the type people always told Galinda she had.

"Yeah," Elphie continued. "Maybe not right now, though. I need to be in the real world - actually be _helpful_ first, you know? And I haven't even looked at how much it would cost -"

Galinda interrupted, "You can get a scholarship easy."

Elphie made a strange wriggling motion to convey her disagreement. "What about you?" she said.

"Emerald City for sure," Galinda said with ease. "I'm applying to, oh, maybe twenty different jobs and placements right now."

Elphie smirked. "You _love_ Emerald City, Glinda. Sure you can keep up with the trends?"

Galinda swallowed her current chocolate square before she stuck her tongue out. "Not everyone dresses that dramatic," she said. "It's just what they show you on TV."

"I wouldn't know. I've actually only been there once," Elphie said. "We went on a family day trip. Nessa must have been around seven."

"No _way_ \- " Galinda said. Only _once_ in more than twenty years of life?

Elphie laughed. "Yeah. It's really far from my hometown."

"I can't _wait_ to live in Emerald City," Galinda said, closing her eyes. "The freedom, the shops, the food, the fashion…"

Elphaba quirked her eyebrow. "You sound like a travel advert."

"Maybe I should get into advertising," Galinda said seriously. And then, "I know there's trouble too, Elphie. I'm just saying… it's not like this little town at all. Or back home."

Elphaba fiddled with the wrapper in her hand. "No, I agree with you." She took a sip of her tea before continuing, quieter, "I've never forgotten the day we went there. You know why?"

"Why?"

"It's the only place I've ever been where - people didn't look twice at me."

Oh. Galinda had never considered that side of things. But it made complete sense with her experience of the place - when there's so many people, so many things going on, no one has the time look twice at something weird. Nothing _is_ weird.

"Oh," she voiced. "That's - that would be nice, right?"

Understatement of the century.

Thankfully, Elphaba only laughed sweetly at her stunted comment.

Inexplicably, she was sweet. Sweet and snarky and clever and even a little stupid, sometimes (the Fiyero incident came to mind). In the centre of their little room Galinda was suddenly overwhelmed by how much she loved the girl in front of her. If someone had told her twelve months ago that her best friend would be that strange green girl she saw lurking around campus - well. She would have laughed in their face. But that seemed a lifetime away.

Elphie was her dearest friend.

Right now, she was tracing her finger along the edge of a sweet wrapper. Galinda wondered what she was thinking as her long fingers folded the piece of plastic in half, and then half again. Elphie's eyes were unfocused, thick lashes casting crisscrossed shadows on her cheeks from the desk lamps on either side of the room. Galinda wanted to touch them.

She cleared her throat. It was crazy but it wasn't the first time she had thought about - _that_. The dream. It had wormed its way into her thoughts and stayed there. But it had been months since that night. She didn't even know if she could really say it _was_ about the dream anymore. She _certainly_ didn't dream anything about her friend's stupid eyelashes.

Either way. There wasn't any point to it - Elphie was her dearest friend and she didn't have to make it _weird._

"Now that I think about it, I've definitely seen some _rare_ skin colours in Emerald City," she said. She lifted a finger suddenly as she remembered. "Oh - there's actually a model who's blue - I saw her in a spread for one of the designers like." She tapped her fingers on the carpet impatiently, "Oh, what was her name…"

"I think I've heard about someone like that," Elphaba nodded. She snorted, "I wonder what my dad would have to say about that."

Galinda made a scandalised face. But the topic triggered her memory - she had been meaning to ask Elphie about something. Since… well, since December. Since her impromptu trip to Madame Morrible's. She had a good opportunity in the form of the leavers' ball.

She had to bite the bullet and try to put her impulse buys to use.

"Elphie, I wanted to ask you something," Galinda started.

"What?" Elphie replied. Blunt - but not _discouraging_ , Galinda told herself _._ That's just how Elphie was.

She powered through. "I was thinking, um, about the ball..."

"Yes?"

"Well.. I know it's not your thing and you have your reasons… but I was thinking we could have a little fun with - I could..."

" _Galinda_."

" _CanIdoyourmakeupfortheball_?" she said, bracing herself for whatever reaction could come from that. "Please?"

Elphaba's eyes widened. "Oh," she said.

Galinda waited with bated breath. Elphie looked a little flustered, eyes lowered. She was probably caught off guard. Galinda had a _nevermind_ ready on the tip of her tongue but a bigger part of her wanted to wait for the sliver of a chance -

"Okay," her friend said finally.

"Really?" Galinda piped up, but she saw that Elphaba's face was solemn. Not sad, but small and careful. Ready to rescind if she saw it fit.

Elphie nodded.

With a rush of affection Galinda realised what was going on here: Elphie was _trusting_ her with something that she was usually completely uncomfortable with. Something she wouldn't even let Galinda talk about a few months ago.

Galinda was still stunned by the reply, to tell the truth. She sat up taller, proud and warm at the responsibility entrusted to her. She would do it perfectly. Even if she _did_ have to contain her sheer excitement at getting to work on Elphie's face in order not to scare her off.

"What changed your mind?" she ventured to ask.

Elphaba looked her right in the eyes, searching, before she looked away. "I- I know you better now. I know you're not trying to - _improve_ me or something."

Galinda scoffed loudly at the idea.

"I _wasn't_. Not even then," she said simply. She didn't know how true that was but it didn't bear thinking about now.

"I know," Elphie said quietly, a strange smile on her face; not looking at Galinda, but looking at her computer. Galinda followed her gaze. The end credits of _Wizomania_ rolled past on the screen. For some reason, they both stared at it, not daring to look up to continue the conversation for a moment. Galinda wondered what the hell was going on.

"I think," Elphaba said finally, peering at the time in the corner of the screen. "It's time for bed." She pulled the lid shut and stretched her arms out.

It was late. Galinda nodded and started gathering the sweet wrappers, glad to have something to do. While she waited for her turn to use the bathroom, she put her half-finished tea on her desk carefully and pulled the furry rug back into place. It _was_ a little gaudy, she thought, biting down a smile. Elphaba had voiced her distaste for it (with a comparison to a dead animal that Galinda would rather not think about) earlier that evening, giggling about how much it had bothered her when she first moved in, as if it was anything in comparison to Galinda's catty behaviour. Not that _Elphie_ was any nicer those first few weeks.

It was crazy how far they had come. How _good_ they were for each other. Galinda couldn't mess that up, even if it meant ignoring the strongest pull she had ever felt toward someone.

Elphaba was still smiling that quiet, tentative smile later when she came to collect Galinda's empty mug before making a trip to the kitchen.

It was an uncharacteristic smile, but she wouldn't go as far as to say it didn't suit Elphie.

In fact, it did suit her. To the point that Galinda wanted to see it, keep it, make it appear over and over again. She cherished how different it was to Elphie's usually assured, stubborn demeanour. Different even to her rare insecure moments. Galinda got into bed and pulled the covers right up to her nose.

It was like a secret. Vulnerable, but not _bad_. Galinda saw her smile and imagined painting it with the colours she had bought as she fell asleep.

She could chastise herself for it tomorrow.


	10. Chapter 10

Elphaba's eyes widened as Galinda emptied the contents of her make-up bag out on the bed. "Uh, when I said you could do my makeup, I didn't think you meant _all_ this stuff-"

"Don't worry! It'll be perfectly subtle. Promise." Galinda blinked and smiled, steadying herself on the bed. She knelt opposite Elphaba, who was cross-legged and feeling more wary by the minute as she watched Galinda bring out and arrange her products.

Elphaba eyed her with disbelief, but she relented. It was too late now anyway; she was surrounded by all manner of items, and she could see no way out: tubes, palettes and brushes in countless sizes and shapes lay around her, along with a few contraptions that Elphaba was a little hesitant to ask about.

"What's the theme again?" she asked.

"It's a little late to be asking that, don't you think? It's _springtime_ , according to the flyer," Galinda said, handing her a hair tie that she had removed from her own wrist.

"Because... it's March? Inventive," Elphaba snorted, taking it and pulling her hair away from her forehead into a quick bun.

"Don't look at me, I didn't plan this one."

Elphaba grumbled. "I just have a black dress," she said. "That's not very spring."

Galinda hummed and tilted her head before her eyes lit up. "Oh, I think I have something. Don't worry about that. On to more pressing matters now," she smiled, rubbing her hands together almost manically. God, she was ridiculous.

Elphaba couldn't help but grimace as she watched Galinda pull out particular products from the pile and line them up carefully next to her.

Galinda caught her expression.

She pouted and shook her head, "Relax, Elphie. I told you, we'll keep it simple. I'm not even going to contour, not really. Just the basics."

Her eyes scanned the bed before she picked out two items and waved hem in the air. " I bought these lovely greens from Madame Morrible's just to use them on you, so don't tell me you're gonna let it go to waste?"

Elphaba startled and snatched one out of her hand. It was a little clear tube filled with a muted green substance and a black application wand. Galinda had been about to unscrew it to show her.

"Wait - what? You bought these for me?"

"Of course, silly. You think I'm gonna look perfectly subtle in this?" She held the other tube, a deeper, vibrant bottle green colour, up to her face.

Elphaba squinted at the tiny writing - it was supposed to be foundation. Green. For her. Galinda bought it.

For _her._

"I- what? I-'"

"Give me your hand," Galinda barged on, holding her own out, taking pity on Elphaba's suddenly bewildered state. Elphaba did as she was told, watching her friend hold a smirk.

This fumbling really didn't suit Elphaba's own image of herself. Trust Galinda to be enjoying it.

Elphaba let Galinda demonstrate, watching her uncap the bottle. Galinda held the applicator daintily up to the light, frowned at it, before dabbing some carefully on Elphaba's wrist. She took a perfunctory glance around for a brush, before giving up and smearing it with a thumb.

"Almost perfect," she smiled. She held Elphaba's wrist up to the light this time, then to her face. "Hmm, actually, I think we could mix a little of the darker one," she twisted open the second tube and dabbed a little of that on top of the first smear on Elphaba's wrist. Elphaba watched. It tickled when Galinda mixed it in with her thumb, and she had to suppress the sensation crawling through down to her fingertips, and the instinct to snatch her hand away.

Galinda looked up finally after inspecting it closely. "I had to guess," she said with a small shrug. "I wanted the darker one to bring out your cheekbones," she trailed an absent finger playfully down the side of Elphaba's face. "But this will do."

She hummed a little, busying herself with the products. "Eh, I guess you don't really need much to make them stand out anyway." She laughed lightly, a little apologetic. Or nervous.

Elphaba hardly heard it. As if she had _anything_ to be apologetic about. As if Elphaba was going to tell her off for not getting the right shade. For going out and buying that stuff, for thinking of her during one of her shopping sprees (her downtime, her ' _me time'_ , Elphaba knew), far away from Shiz and far away from the school year.

Galinda was mixing the product on a small lid of something or the other that she had procured. Satisfied, she came back to Elphaba and dabbed the mixture on her forehead, her cheeks, and down the length of her nose, before picking up a large brush and blending it out with quick, practised movements.

 _Thinking of her friend's face and thinking about what would look good on it._

Elphaba kept her eyes down.

"We don't need much," Galinda mused, tilting Elphaba's jaw to the side. "Your skin is so clear."

Eyes down.

Galinda pressed two fingers under her chin and lifted it up to swipe the fanned brush along her jaw.

Or up. Wherever she could avoid meeting her gaze.

When she was done, Galinda sat back and observed. "Okay. Just the lighter one now," she said, and Elphaba wasn't sure if she was talking to herself. This time she went in with just her fingers, after dotting Elphaba's face with the spongy applicator. The pads of her fingers swept under Elphaba's eyes, her thumbs brushing along her cheekbones in a swift and symmetrical motion. She put some on her chin next, a little over the tip of her nose, and finished all the way up near Elphaba's temples.

"And… powder…" Galinda said, her hand hovering before it picked up a round, white container. She clicked open the case and dipped in a brush, before dusting it off on the side. "Close your eyes, Elphie," she said.

Elphaba did. The brush tickled her and the powder was dusty. She coughed and Galinda giggled before whispering, "Sorry." Elphaba coughed a little more for the hell of it. She opened her eyes to a smiling face mirroring hers.

"Now my favourite part," Galinda said. "Your eyes!"

Elphaba laughed, though she didn't know why. "Uh, okay. Not too dramatic, remember."

Galinda didn't seem to notice her weirdness (or didn't want to draw attention to it). She busied herself with finding a new set of smaller brushes. Galinda showed her the palette - Elphaba tried not to blanch at how intense the dark, sparkling greens, blues and purples that stared up at her were.

"Ready?" Galinda asked.

Elphaba closed her eyes and presented her face again.

She tried to follow what Galinda was doing just by the feel of it. Sometimes there were fingers, sometimes a brush. It was always gentle. Eventually Elphaba lost track - she thought she must have, because it felt like Galinda was switching between ten different shades.

The deep, swift swipes that Galinda used in the crease of her eyelid were almost calming. Repetitive. It was hard to stop her face from going limp and simply enjoying the sensation.

And this clearly was Galinda's favourite part, because she took the longest. Elphaba felt strange - it was the sleepiness which she hadn't anticipated, the weird anticlimax of the movements. In her head she had imagined Galinda to be her usual, exuberant self, given the way she talked about putting makeup on Elphaba. Or even like those alarmingly bouncy attitudes in the videos Elphaba tried to watch, all those years ago.

But she hadn't expected how simple, how _careful_ Galinda could be at all. Galinda was quiet, working and blending and sweeping and always observing. Now that it came down to it, Elphaba realised, of course it would be strange to get the job done in any other way.

But still, it made Elphaba catch herself a little. Made her let her thoughts go in a way that she really shouldn't have.

"That's done," Galinda finally said. Just like before, she sat back and held Elphaba's chin to admire her work - Elphaba found that she liked the predictability. Not something she could usually say about her friend's actions.

After that came eyeliner - _two_ eyeliners - which in Elphaba's book _absolutely_ meant that Galinda hadn't been able to keep her promise, but at this point she didn't even mind. She couldn't admit to Galinda how strangely pleasant this was turning out to be.

How unexpected.

"There," Galinda said, proudly. She finished capping the lid of the stark gold eyeliner (apparently that was a thing that existed). "You look beautiful."

She brought out a mascara tube next, waving it around rather carelessly like a fickle fairy with a magic wand. This was Elphaba's least favourite part, she decided afterwards. The awkward blinking, a sticky feeling in her lashes, and Galinda's focus on her coming very close, _way_ too close. When she retreated to sweep some kind of powder in her brows, Elphaba almost sighed in relief, like the floor swept from under her feet had suddenly been put back.

She had to say something. Bring herself back. "What's that?"

"Huh? This?" Galinda seemed to snap back to Earth too. She held up the tube in her hand. "Brow mascara."

"Brow _mascara_?"

"Brow mascara, Elphie." she said resolutely, then at her friend's withering gaze, "Shut up."

She sat still for the "brow mascara" and before she knew it, Galinda was clicking the lid back on, admiring her work.

With an air of finality, she picked out a lipstick. "This is the darkest thing I have," she said. "It should be perfect on you." She stared for a moment at it, opened the cap, before pausing. She handed it to Elphaba awkwardly. "Here, it's better if you put it on."

Elphaba was handed the lipstick, followed shortly by a little hand-held mirror. It was a deep red-brown, muted like mud. She tried her best with it, a little dismayed. She had actually been getting used to just sitting there, if not used to the attention. Galinda's insistence that she put the lipstick on herself had broken the flow a little earlier than she would have liked.

When she was done, Galinda looked at her again. "You're all done," she said, pressing her lips together like she was looking for anything she might have forgotten on Elphaba's face.

Elphaba blinked and made an unintentional noise in the back of her throat. Galinda was observing her with that same calmness, even now. It would have been unnerving if it wasn't so mesmerising.

"Umm," she said finally. "Let your hair down to finish it off," and she reached behind Elphaba and pulled out the hair tie that was keeping it away from her face. "I love your hair," she said absently. "It's just so silky."

"Mm," Elphaba said, eyes closing again, in case Galinda had just asked some kind of question. Galinda's fingers brushed through her hair gently, freeing the strands. Then they were gone.

At last, when Galinda was on the other side of the room, fighting with a bottle of hairspray, Elphaba got up. She stood up carefully, not wanting to send the items littered around the bed flying, and walked to Galinda's mirror. Her legs felt like she had just gotten out of a swimming pool.

"Do you like it?" Galinda had paused to watch her.

Elphaba stared at her reflection. She looked - well, amazingly, she still looked like herself. Not _ridiculous_ , or anything like that. Not an impostor. But the difference was palpable.

She looked like someone who belonged at a ball. An Elphaba that somehow, in some way, wouldn't look too out of place in a place like that.

"Well?"

"I - wow. I do." She turned around, expecting an expectant look from Galinda. But the expression that met hers wasn't smug at all.

Her friend's face was sweet and wide open with relief. 'I'm glad," she said, a belated, signature dazzling smile creeping up her face. "Get dressed then!"

"Right," Elphaba said through her smile. She picked up and quickly put on the long, black dress that was waiting draped over her desk chair. A single emergency-formal-dress, the same one she had worn to high school prom.

Over her shoulder, she saw Galinda putting on the finishing touches to her own look. Her hair tumbled gently just past her shoulder, looking terribly soft to touch - though Elphaba knew it wasn't, considering what she had just seen Galinda inflict on it with the hairspray. It was only a shade away from her earrings and hairpin, which matched her dress; pure, pale gold and sparkling. She looked like she would be the one bringing springtime to the ball.

She turned around and Elphaba averted her eyes. "Elphie? Have you seen my wet wipes- oh, wait!" Her eyes widened. "I almost forgot!"

"Forgot what?" Elphaba asked, alarmed, but Galinda was already digging in the drawer of her dresser, sending jewellery and pins and brushes flying.

"Here!" she said, pulling out a large, pink flower. When Elphaba looked closer she realised it was a pin, and the flower that surrounded it was fake, but it looked so real, the gentle gradient of the petals unfurling from a yellow centre, that Elphaba could immediately tell how expensive it must be.

Galinda walked over to her and in a single movement, swept her long hair behind her ear, tucking and pinning it between two carefully chosen strands. "Spring," she said. "Obviously."

Her thumb rested close to Elphaba's cheek before she moved away.

Elphaba felt intensely grateful for those extra, impromptu few seconds of attention that she wasn't supposed to have.

"Okay. Let's go!" Galinda said, picking up and waving around the wet wipes to show she had found them. She put them into her purse and slipped on her shoes. "Don't want to be late, do we?"

Elphaba nodded and began to put on her own shoes. She checked herself in the mirror again one last time. Earlier tonight she thought she might be nervous, going out like this for the first time, but it wasn't pressing on her mind now. She followed Galinda out of the room, checking her ticket, her phone, her wallet, almost on autopilot.

The skirt of Galinda's dress gleamed as she adjusted it to walk down the stairs and Elphaba couldn't help but follow it with her eyes. Galinda was sparkling, _literally_ sparkling in that dress, of course, but also in a million more ways than that.

Elphaba beamed at her once they were outside. She could bear going to a party tonight, she could probably bear a few more nights, just to be with Galinda like this.


	11. Chapter 11

The ball wasn't half bad, Galinda had to admit it. The choice of decor left something to be desired - it was exactly as half-baked as her quick idea regarding Elphie's hair, even though these planners had had _considerably_ more time. The whole venue was decorated with flowers, leaves, foliage of all kind hanging in bunches from the ceiling. The only thing that stopped it from looking like a wedding was the fact that everything was also doused in a healthy amount of glitter.

Still, it kind of worked. A stage on one end of the hall was hosting a live band, with a small army of disco balls lighting up a section up directly in front. People were already milling around and dancing. The rest of the hall was devoted to rows of impeccably set dining tables, crowded to almost full capacity. Galinda idly wondered if she should check her phone - could they really be _that_ late?

She was distinctly under the impression that it was the opposite - surely, they had been rushing, getting ready? She certainly felt rushed.

She absorbed her surroundings as she scanned the place for her friends, Elphie at her heels. Sure, she might not have gone _so_ far with the glitter, but she was also blissfully not in charge of those things.

All _she_ was in charge of was her enjoyment. Well. Maybe Elphie's too. She felt like she might have already dampened that a little, with how many pictures she had insisted on taking before they even reached the place.

Galinda caught the sparkle of Fiona's bracelet as it reached up high over the crowd and waved her over. When she craned her neck to forge a path towards the table, she saw that the usual group seemed to have expanded to include significant others as well as many regular others. Everyone in the whole year seemed to have gathered together tonight, for perhaps the last party before everyone became bogged down in exams and essays.

Galinda pushed through the crowd, acutely aware of how she _wasn't_ leading a slightly flustered Elphie by the hand, like she normally would.

She was already distracted, from doing Elphie's make-up that evening, and more she tried not to focus on that, the more it clouded her mind.

But she was here to have fun. No need to dig herself deeper right now. And she was _hungry_. Cornering yourself in a room full of nothing but awkward feelings for your best friend, it turned out, took a lot of energy.

As soon as they reached the group, more chairs were procured. It looked like most people had already eaten. Galinda decided to dig right in, ignoring Elphie's curious glance.

The food was decent - little party snacks, but enough of it to make a whole meal out of. She tuned in here and there to the conversations taking place around her: catch-ups, gossip, several instances of people gushing over Elphaba's attire ( _her_ handiwork); her roommate's dutiful squirming in return. She listened more than she talked. All her friends were glowing, chatty, clearly already well into the rhythm of the night. Galinda wanted to join them.

But something in her mind was still back in the room, refusing to catch up with her current surroundings.

It was stupid.

She politely smiled her way out of a conversation with someone's friend's boyfriend (about, of all things, the Shiz badminton team which he was on and she had never heard of) and looked around. Next to her, Elphie was caught up by an explanation of some TV show, by someone she hadn't met yet.

She didn't look _un_ comfortable, Galinda decided. Surely, she wouldn't mind if Galinda left her among these people for a moment? She had no idea why she had the building urge to be far away from her roommate, just for a moment. Fiona could be a reliable distraction.

"Fi," She reached across to gently poke her friend's silk-blue knee in the chair across from her.

Fiona perked up, and Galinda gestured at the compact mirror in her hand.

"Oh, sure," Fiona said. She finished pinning an unruly lock of her hair and handed it over the table, putting her chin in her hands to watch Galinda. "So what's the verdict, boss?"

"Huh?" Galinda said, taking her lipstick out of her purse.

"The ball?"

Galinda tilted the mirror, trying to get enough light on her face to see what she was doing. She swiped the lipstick across carefully.

"The ball that we're at right now?"

The lighting wasn't great in here. Galinda shifted this way and that in her seat to get a better look.

"...Galinda?"

"Oh -!" she said suddenly. "Sorry…" She gave Fiona a quick glance and checked her lips in the mirror again. It all suddenly looked like too sparse a layer from this angle. Wow, she really had eaten _ferociously_.

"Galinda!"

She lifted the lipstick off her mouth to say, "What?"

"Are you okay? You seem so distracted." Fiona looked serious, brows straight.

Galinda clipped the mirror shut and put it down. Freshly painted smile. "I'm fine."

Fiona looked unconvinced, or maybe it was a trick of the low light. But she had no reason to be doubtful, did she? No one did.

Galinda blinked and tried to focus on her surroundings. She remembered her primary reason for getting Fiona's attention. "Oh! Let's go dance!"

A moment later, they were right in the thick of the party. And dance they did. Up close, the band was very loud. Galinda could almost pretend they were on a night out at the Ozdust Ballroom - the songs were thankfully still upbeat at this point in the night. Dancing with Fiona, she was in her element, and for a while she could almost forget about the nagging dread in the back of her head - the part of her that urged to leave, the part that wanted to go home.

Really _home_ , in her own room back in the Uplands - not back to the tiny room she shared with Elphie or the library or the cafe - and just curl up in bed, away from the glitter and the lights and her friends and her _best_ friend.

She sighed. Did Elphie ever notice? What would she think?

How could she _not_ notice? It had been weeks since they came back from winter break - no, _months_.

Galinda dared to let herself think of it.

Elphie wouldn't- she wouldn't be _mean_. No, not ever. Even if she didn't feel the same way. Which was a crazy long shot, because even if they were so close, they were still so _different_ , in taste and personality and so many other tiny things, and probably nothing about her drew Elphie like _that_ , and there was Fiyero, and -

It came down to this: Galinda couldn't impose. She couldn't dump her feelings on a girl who was still the most remarkably awkward person she knew. It wasn't fair. If the fallout was was bad, she would just be humiliating herself, leaving a mess for someone smarter than her to clean up.

She didn't realise that she had stopped her movements, just barely swaying. It seemed to suit Fiona just fine, who pointed to the bar behind her to show that she was going to take a break to get a drink.

Galinda found herself a drink too, some kind of bright orange cocktail in a tapered glass, and wandered back to the table. Elphaba was apparently done with her conversations, currently swirling the drink in her glass and observing the dance floor with the same kind of scrutiny like she was trying to understand a paper she was reading for class.

"Elphie?" Galinda came to her side.

"Mm?" She turned her head up quickly, and Galinda, who had forgotten, was momentarily struck by her face. Under the light, every angle of it was carefully enhanced, by someone who clearly loved the process and the subject.

Galinda was turning out to be the reason for her own undoing. She tried not to grimace.

"That cocktail is terrible," Elphie remarked with a raised eyebrow. "I had one earlier."

A little bit of the dread and self-pity fighting inside Galinda deflated. She laughed and pulled out the chair adjacent to Elphie to sit in. While she was in her own head, _Elphaba_ was sitting glammed up at a party, complaining about the alcohol, seemingly just finished with the boring conversations of her surrounding peers. It was a peculiar (pretty funny) sight, one that brought her back to reality a little.

"Something interesting?" she asked.

"Oh, no. Just people watching."

Right. Galinda followed her eyes. She saw many recognisable faces - this was probably the last big event before graduation, after all. Fiyero was there, with a group of friends that she had never seen him with before. She nudged Elphie's elbow.

"I saw," Elphaba said, not turning.

"Do you know who he's with?"

"Yeah!" She squinted and peered closely and Galinda had to resist the urge to boop her nose at the expression. "They're all people I know from societies. Mostly humanities dept. You know, activists," Elphaba said.

So he really was serious about all that stuff.

Good for him, she guessed. She glanced at Elphaba sidelong. "What, aren't you going to go say hi to your society friends?"

Elphaba smiled wryly before she had even finished. She held up a finger, "First, _friend_ is a very strong word. And second, _you_ go talk to him first."

Galinda harrumphed and poured herself some water from the jug in the middle of the table. Elphie was right about the drink. "I thought you guys were fine now."

"We are," Elphaba said pointedly. "But I don't want to go interrupt their group now, do I?"

Some weird part of Galinda was glad. Experience told her Elphaba and Fiyero was not a good combination in her head, or in front of her eyes. Especially not when Elphie looked like _this._ And she couldn't guarantee that the piteous, precarious dam in her chest tonight wouldn't burst faced with the first person who had ever really caused it.

She decided to have a little fun. "So have you ever danced at a ball before?"

Long seconds passed as Galinda watched the options flicker in Elphaba's eyes. Say _yes_ \- which she _must_ have known that Galinda would know to be a lie - or say _no,_ and be faced with the prospect of being dragged to the dancefloor. Galinda smiled at the fact that Elphie let her read all of this off her pointed silence.

"No," she said finally.

Galinda felt a slow smile crawl over her face, just as she watched Elphie's eyes widen in fear.

"Wanna dance, Elphie?" she asked sweetly.

Elphaba released her breath so slowly that the eventual sigh that came out seemed like an afterthought. " _Okay_. Show me."

Galinda sprang up from her seat and dragged Elphie by the hand to the dancefloor. It was beginning to clear out. The band had presumably gone home, replaced by a slightly more sombre playlist. Galinda hoped this indie stuff wasn't going to be the tracklist to her demise, but the miserably lovelorn lyrics that began to whine out of the speakers weren't encouraging. At least there was no howling. Yet.

She stepped into place and manoeuvred Elphie to do the same. Elphaba smelled like her own perfume, which smelled like their room. Her cool hands enveloped Galinda's bare shoulders. Galinda put her arms around her waist.

She couldn't get away with torturing Elphie, without torturing herself too.

"This song is pretty… lousy," Elphie decided, looking at her toes.

" _Yes_ ," Galinda said, rolling her eyes with relish. "It's like they _want_ all the plants to die."

"They're plastic," Elphie deadpanned.

"Right!" Galinda said. "Obviously." She felt her face heat for no reason.

Elphie, it turned out, was decidedly _not_ a natural. She could trip over her own toes with little input from Galinda in a structured dance like this. However, after two more songs, they managed to settle into an uneasy rhythm. Galinda found that if she focused on keeping Elphie straight, she didn't end up thinking about other things.

"Are you having fun?" she asked, when her brain had decided to overtake regardless.

"Of course," Elphie said softly, startled out of the rhythm.

"You're... complaining a lot," Galinda observed.

"You usually know what my complaining means," Elphie retorted, a small smile on her lips. She kept looking down, away, and Galinda didn't have the brainpower to wonder why, watching the downward cast of her thick lashes each time.

"Yeah… I don't know. I guess I'm distracted."

"Why?"

"Don't know. Just nervous about things." She felt like a broken record.

Elphie's eyes narrowed before she closed them to think. The golden strokes along each eyelid became symmetrical in Galinda's vision.

"I know you are," Elphie said finally, quietly. "but it's OK. I've seen your applications and all that kind of stuff. And I've proofread every single thing you've turned in since October."

Galinda decided to go with it. "You're right."

Elphie gave her a worried glance out of the corner of her eye, and saw this moment fit to draw Galinda in closer, until they were practically hugging. Head to toe. Galinda tried not to feel guilty for playing along with her assumption. She was being selfish, again.

Elphie's long body shifted in her arms. "You're so amazing, really," she said into her hair, voice almost hazy with meaning.

Galinda blinked back something in her eyes.

No. This wouldn't do. She extracted herself and smiled. She said the clumsiest thing she could say, without betraying what she really wanted to say. "I'm so glad you're my friend."

"You think _you're_ glad," Elphie said, her eyes fixed on her shoes again. "I've never even really had friends before. Not like -"

"Fiyero is your friend," Galinda said, before she could stop herself. Idiot.

Elphaba burst out laughing. But when she came down from it, her face was shadowed with the loss of her train of thought. "But - you're cuter," she said innocently.

Galinda tripped on her feet this time. "Glad to know the criteria you pick your friends by, Elphie," she coughed. "And here I thought you cared about my charming personality."

When the current track segued into yet another similar song, it became clear to Galinda that they were both suddenly too perked up to really continue with the funeral march. Galinda was kind of relieved.

A while later, she found herself with a (much nicer) drink in her hand, ushered to a chair in a corner close to the stage, where a group of her friends were preparing an announcement. She leaned on Fiona's shoulder and watched as the student representative of their batch, a deceptively soft-voiced guy from the economics department, introduced the two organizers of the event to the stage. Galinda was so exhausted at this point in the night that it went in a blur: a few toasts, a lot of laughs and clapping, more music.

Her eyes were on her roommate, out into the tables below.

Elphaba sat surprisingly loose in her chair, one leg crossed over the other under the thin black material of her skirt. Galinda tried a smile, and she smiled back. As languid as the dance. The conversations.

Galinda checked her phone. It had been more than a couple of hours.

"Do you want to go back?" she asked Elphie, once she had said goodbye to her friends.

"You're done?"

Galinda shrugged. On a regular day, she probably would have liked to stay a little longer.

Elphaba pressed for a reaction from underneath her gold-lined eyes. Next time, Galinda suddenly thought, she would do that differently - not so thick in the corners, and maybe a little more mascara.

Galinda nodded and cupped her own hair, pulling it over one shoulder. "I'm tired. I need to get up early to study tomorrow, anyway. Final paper on Monday," she found herself yawning.

She felt like she could sleep for a hundred years, give or take. It was Elphie who took her hand and led her out.

...

The next day Galinda felt more energised, if no less strange. The sun shone high in the sky when she went out to the campus cafe in the morning, prepared to devote the day to studying her class notes. Not an ideal way to spend a Saturday _ever_ , but it had to be done, with exams coming up and an overall fun party night behind her. She would catch a break in the evening, because Elphie had asked her on their way home last night to go into town with her to get a new pair of shoes. Wearing the same pair of boots every single day tended to wear them out pretty quickly, as Galinda had expected.

But when she returned to the room, almost past sunset, Elphaba was nowhere to be seen.

She hadn't answered Galinda's messages earlier, which wasn't too strange, but Galinda was definitely expecting to find her indoors.

The library was her second port of call - and she was correct. Galinda found her friend in a corner in the crowded ground floor (apparently everyone had the same idea as her today). Elphie was leaning forward in her chair, but her spine remained stiff. Her books and a coffee cup were laying beside her computer, forgotten. Galinda could immediately tell that something was wrong, just by the hard glare in Elphie's eyes as she scanned her laptop screen in front of her.

"Is something wrong?" Galinda asked when she arrived at her desk.

Elphaba rolled her eyes and motioned for her to sit. Galinda sat down opposite her, expecting the start of a rant.

"You know those books I love, right? That I'm going to a signing for?"

Galinda narrowed her eyes in confusion. What could that have to do with her mood? Even Galinda knew that book signings by your favourite author were supposed to be fun. "Next month, right? Yeah - the Wizard guy."

Elphaba was nodding and typing fast, clearly searching for something on her computer.

Galinda went on, puzzled. "The one whose work you're obsessed with. All the important stuff he wrote, right? About different people like you," she frowned.

Elphaba nodded stiffly, seized the side of her laptop and turned the screen viciously towards Galinda. She took a sharp sip out of her cup.

Galinda read the news page and gasped. Her eyes flitted up towards her friend's weary face.

"Oh, _Elphie._ "

The headline on the screen read:

 _AUTHOR, PROFESSOR, FRAUD? BELOVED 'WIZARD' FOUND GUILTY OF PLAGIARISING ACCLAIMED ACADEMIC WORK AND MUCH MORE._

Galinda read on. _A former PhD student and two former colleagues of the renowned thinker and activist Dr. Oscar Zoroaster Diggs have come forward with a compelling case, and the shocking emails to prove it. They have argued to the Board that the Emerald City College professor may have passed off their key ideas as his own in his seminal works that revolutionised the discourse around rare colourful humans. Diggs, colloquially known as 'the Wizard' for his series of bestselling fantasy fiction aimed at..._

She didn't need to know any more. Elphaba was frowning hard, almost unconsciously, in the chair across from her.

"I read the emails, and I've read everything he's ever written," she said blankly.

Galinda could tell how upset Elphie was. It was plain enough how important this was to her. Galinda remembered the way her eyes had lit up talking about the books. They were everything to Elphie. Judging by what she had said, they had _made_ her - just like Galinda's magazines and princess movies and pop idols had done for her.

But it wasn't just that. Elphie's face was hard.

Galinda asked quietly, "What do the emails say?"

Elphie shook her head, looking a thousand times more tired with the motion. "It's not what they say," she muttered, "though it's disgusting. Everything that he wrote about- about making us _normal-"_

She took a deep breath, her shoulders drooping like the fight had gone from her. Galinda instinctively grabbed her hand across the table.

"Well - he doesn't seem to care about anything except getting praise from it. He stole _all_ his material from his colleagues - that blue woman, especially," she pointed at the photo on a screen.

Galinda gasped again. Talk about adding insult to the injury.

"I wouldn't be surprised if the books are plagiarised, either," Elphie grumbled.

She looked absolutely dejected, her body seemed small and tired across the vast library desk. Her childhood - literally - was being crushed in real time in front of Galinda. Galinda felt her own frustration rise. This was everything that had made the younger, sadder Elphie - the young and sad parts of her _still_ \- feel okay when the world around her rejected her on sight.

Galinda wanted to leap across and hug her so tight that she wouldn't have the space to think about it for a second longer. She made a decision.

"You know what, fuck him."

Her choice of language caught Elphie's attention (which was the point), and Elphie's morose expression became curious.

"Huh?"

"It doesn't make any of those things that he published less true or important. You just put the wrong face to it."

Elphaba made a grumble of discontent. "It makes me so mad." Her voice was rough and thick, and Galinda knew its breaking point. "Those books -"

"I know, sweetie," Galinda said. Except that she couldn't _hope_ to know - and Elphaba surely knew that, but she didn't say anything. Galinda understood that that was her way of accepting her sympathy. Nothing about Elphie's demeanour came off as irate as she was trying to seem right now, her sadness bursting through her hard edges.

It pained Galinda, the thing that she could read off her friend's face with so little effort: if the thing that had _always_ made her feel normal was a lie - then was her normalness _also_ -?

No way. Elphie didn't _deserve_ to feel like this. Galinda squeezed the hand she was holding. She said fiercely, "we should - we should _do_ something to take your mind off it,"

Elphaba sniffed sadly. "You don't have to do anything."

"I'm going to make you feel better," Galinda said. Elphie barked a laugh through her misery - of course, she knew there was nothing to stop Galinda once she was set on a fanciful idea.

Galinda wracked her brain until the best idea presented itself to her. She leaned all the way across the desk, eyes bright.

"Tomorrow. I'm going to take you to Emerald City."


	12. Chapter 12

The next morning Elphaba was woken up way too early, by the sound of her roommate puttering around the room. She followed Galinda's movements by their sound - first, she was using the shower, next came the routine in front of the mirror, followed by the rustle of clothes as she undoubtedly flew through three different outfits before settling on one. Elphaba noticed these things long before she registered where she was, and what day it was.. And what had happened yesterday.

She sighed and squeezed her eyes shut before opening them again and leaping out of bed in one motion. No. She wasn't going to dwell on it now. On that determined note, she went straight to the shower (and then she had to poke her head out and ask Galinda to pass her her towel, damn it.)

When Elphaba came out, Galinda was sitting lengthwise on her bed, dressed to go out in a cream-yellow sundress - definitely not one of her sleeker lecture/meeting/interview attires that Elphaba was used to. Elphaba didn't stare at the way the hem of the dress draped over Galinda's knees on the bed.

God, she was becoming a little bit insane. The ball two nights ago hadn't helped one bit.

"Eat something small if you're gonna eat," Galinda said over whatever she was texting to whoever, "so we can get something out for breakfast when we get there."

And there was that, too - Galinda's (very sweet, very _her_ ) offer to take her around Emerald City to cheer her up. Elphaba tried to feel excited for the day ahead - a gesture to match Galinda's gesture, more than anything - but the dread rose in her.

The sweeter Galinda was about this, the sadder it made her. So she piled one unwarranted bitterness over the other warranted one and braced herself. It couldn't have meant anything - because this was just how Galinda was. And the make-up, two nights ago, that was also just how Galinda was. The months of compliments and the tentative secret conversations and the hair brushing and everything else.

And who was she?

Someone who was barely on the edges of her world. Someone who was barely learning those social skills that Galinda thrived on, she had to be frank. And most of that was thanks to Galinda, anyway. And a girl, too. Not that those things about Galinda were easy to read (despite what she thought at the beginning) but either way, it was so unlikely that Elphaba felt stupid even entertaining it.

She ran her hands through her hair and rubbed her eyes. She _was_ going to enjoy today. "Right," she said. "I'll put some cereal bars in my bag. We can eat a little on the train."

Elphaba wondered if they should have planned out what they wanted to do first - before biting the words in her mouth when Galinda pulled out a perfect schedule from the notes on her phone.

"I was researching while you got ready," she said excitedly, "I'll lay it all out on the train."

And she did, while the rickety carriage they sat in made its way through Shiz and into the blooming countryside beyond. Galinda turned in her seat and counted off their potential activities on her fingers. "I think we should start with the outdoors stuff. The big park, of course. And eat! There's so many things to try in the food market." She paused. "Andmaybewecouldlookattheshopingarcade."

Elphaba pressed her lips together and tried to keep her mouth straight. She didn't have the slightest idea whether she was trying to stop herself from laughing, or simply beaming at her friend's predictability.

"What?" Galinda said. "It's _world famous_." She pressed on, "then in the afternoon, if we're done with the market, there's free hours at the museums, from five to seven," she waggled her eyebrows to at Elphie to show that yes, she was thinking about Elphaba's interests too, thank you very much.

Now Elphaba did laugh. "After that?" she prompted.

"Then we have to go by the bridge and parliament buildings. They look so perfect at night, Elphie. You'll love it."

Elphaba couldn't help but be excited, finally.

...

When the train pulled into the main station in Emerald City, the difference in the air was palpable. Just craning her neck past the ticket barrier, Elphaba could see hordes of people milling around in the station - whose green-tinged skylight roof curved so high above them that it felt like the whole of her dorm building at Shiz could fit inside it.

Galinda rushed out of its doors, dragging Elphaba by the hand in tow. She led her through the crowds, her phone guiding her.

A short walk from the station brought them to the city's famous sculpture park. Elphaba had seen its avant-garde figures in every brochure and website about Emerald City, so it was more than a little surreal to finally be seeing them in real life. They were far bigger than she had thought. It was hard not to marvel at the looming shapes, harder still to tell what they were actually supposed to be. No matter how derisive Elphaba could be about, uh, modern art, on a normal day, she was nothing but impressed now.

About ten minutes into their walk, Galinda picked a glass castle (Elphaba's best guess) made of interlocking geometric shapes to stop and take pictures under. Elphaba took those moments to take a few of her own snaps, though none of them involving herself.

When they stopped in front of a giant fountain of mottled green marble, Galinda sprang up to a stranger to ask for photos. She threw her arms around Elphaba, who only froze for a moment before returning the gesture, wrapping her arms around her friend's waist with a laugh. Galinda seemed more than pleased when she collected her phone from their (rather flustered) photographer, but she wouldn't show Elphaba the result.

"You'll just say you look stupid," she said matter-of-factly.

Past the fountain, which marked the middle of the park, their past led out to the opposite entrance. It was easy to tell that they were nearing the city centre. The crowds got busier, and the trees that lined the wide brick avenue running through the park began to thin out. It wasn't empty, however. Little stalls and vans crowded the spaces underneath. This must have been the market. Elphaba thought she spotted a Wizomania character or two, and parents cheerfully putting pennies in their buckets while kids jumped to pose in their arms.

Everything, she noted, was garishly green. Identical items littered every other stall - fans and keychains and magnets and all other kinds of souvenirs and tourist paraphernalia, all in various degrees of glimmering emerald glitter. Further down, the mixing smells of street food drew them.

Galinda pointed out green crepes, green cakes, and even green fries as they passed them in windows and stalls.

Elphaba wrinkled her nose. "Why don't they just serve…?"

"Vegetables?" Galinda offered. "Don't be ridiculous."

After looking around the establishments, they finally decided on ice cream. The sun was high in the sky by this time, and combined with the heat of the crowds, it was making Elphaba thirsty. They picked a van that had put out little seats outside. The flavours - again, three shades of green - sat in a little display box with their happily outrageous prices written underneath.

They sat down, the sun bearing down on their shoulders. Elphaba tried to salvage her matcha green tea which was running down the side of the cone, while Galinda's eyes gleamed at her over her own mint ice cream.

"Careful, Elphie," she said sweetly.

"Ugh," Elphaba tried in vain to make her already wet napkin do its job. She half laughed in frustration. "I don't even know why - this is just the least worst flavour - why does everything _have_ to be green?"

Galinda gave a non-committal shrug with one shoulder, licking busily at her ice cream. "This green's heavenly," she murmured, eyes closed. And then she opened them suddenly, staring straight at Elphaba.

"Don't be mad, Elphie," she said. "You belong here," and she winked, before the melting ice cream teetered so close over the edge of her waffle bowl that Galinda jumped and manoeuvred her whole body to tip it back into place.

Elphaba cackled at her comment. "You're right. I think if I stayed here though, no one would be able to see me."

"That could be nice, right?" Galinda didn't miss a beat.

"Oh, yeah…" Elphaba hummed.

"No… that's not possible..." Galinda said belatedly. 'You could never melt into the background," she shook her head solemnly, the effect slightly lessened by the sight of her licking ice cream off her fingers.

"Thanks, I knew that," Elphaba deadpanned.

"Oh, you know what I mean. Don't be smart," Galinda rolled her eyes. "You're just way too amazing."

Elphaba didn't have a comeback for that. Galinda's seemed to know, and the glint in her eyes told her she took immense pleasure in the fact.

The high gate that ushered them out of the park was identical to the one from the station. It led straight out to a shopping arcade across the street. Next to her, Galinda was practically bouncing on her toes, eyes sparkling as she looked this way and that. She took Elphaba's hand and cut through the crowd and into the long, covered street, weaving and bobbing around groups of people to see what stores she could spot.

"Shall we look for your shoes?" she asked.

Elphaba took a glance around the glossy storefronts before meeting Galinda's eyes with a grimace. "It's a little too…"

"High end?" Galinda blinked.

"Kinda," Elphaba said, smiling.

Even Galinda had to admit defeat. Still, she dragged Elphaba along the street, peering into every few shops. It really was ostentatious. The poshest shop back at home was probably like a charity store compared to these, both in terms of price and… gaudiness. They tried on hats and coats and lipsticks - and even a cape of some sort, in what Elphaba presumed was a fancy dress store, though really, it was hard to tell here - until even she had to admit she was having fun.

Galinda still managed to rack up four bags by the time they found an exit.

"What next?" Galinda asked to the air, leaning against an ornate lamp post. Elphaba took her bags while Galinda carefully checked her map app for her pinned spots. "Museum? It should be five by the time we get to that area, if we walk by all the landmarks on the way."

The landmarks on the way, as it turned out, were yet more elaborate sculptures. Elphaba sensed a pattern by the time they walked past the fifth memorial garden of some striking marble war general or the other. This one even boasted a horse made out of carefully sculpted bushes. The museum they decided to go with was also much the same in its ostentatious grandeur, all portraits of Emerald City lords and ladies through the ages. Elphaba enjoyed things like this in a morbid sort of way, a curiosity for the history of such a place. She could sense Galinda getting bored, however. Her friend began to fidget and hang back a little.

"Bored?" Elphaba said, a mild disappointment roiling in her stomach. Why did she care? She had just let Galinda drag her through miles of designer shops.

"Me? No," Galinda shook her head. "Maybe this isn't the most interesting thing, but…"

"Hey," Elphie said, as they approached a long wall. The entire width of it was taken up entirely by a massive portrait of a lady, sitting in a chair and covered in opulent shawls and frills, looking absolutely dejected. An immense dragon curled around the bottom of her seat, wearing much the same expression. The contrast between their unimpressed expressions and the extravagant adornments they were being subjected to made a giggle erupt from Elphaba's chest. "What do you think happened to her?"

Galinda tilted her chin in her hand. "Hmm…" She assessed the painting with curious eyes. "Clearly someone's tired of high society. I would be too, if someone tried to put a gold-crusted bow on my dragon," she snorted.

"Really?" Elphaba gasped. "I thought that was right up your alley."

Galinda pouted before looking serious. "No, Elphie. There's a difference between fashionable and expensive. I wouldn't expect you to know, since…." She looked up and down at Elphaba before winking and walking through to the next display.

This next painting boasted an aerial view of a scene in a park, filled to the brim with characters - the very same one they had walked through earlier, Elphaba could tell by the layout, though the place looked vastly different - and there was no shortage of bizarre scenes. Elphaba peered at a tiny bird seller screaming in the middle of the path, whose products had escaped their cages and begun to wreak havoc on the nearby fruit stalls, including one which, apparently, had caught on fire. She began recounting his elaborate backstory without hesitation, with a delighted Galinda offering a suggestion every so often to her side. Elphaba tried to ignore the warmth pooling in her chest every time Galinda laughed so hard that she had to stifle herself so she didn't disturb the other visitors.

They flew through the rest of the exhibitions doing the same thing, though Elphaba wouldn't be able to recall later what they were about.

Finally, as they were walking down the steps, Galinda said, "Let's eat!"

A light April rain had started up while they were inside, and Galinda took out her bright yellow umbrella and ushered Elphaba under it, too. They ambled down the main avenue until restaurants started popping up. Elphaba, who only really ate to keep herself energised, didn't have much of an opinion on the matter, so she tried not to cringe when Galinda picked an incredibly fancy looking place to sit in. It definitely wasn't far enough from the museums to be a sensible price, and the glowing avant-garde lamps and chandeliers Elphaba could see through the window didn't give her much hope either.

"Are they gonna let us in?" Elphaba whispered in her ear as they waited by the entrance to be seated. "We don't exactly look like we stepped out of a private limo."

"You're so dramatic," Galinda said with mischief. "I've been here before with my parents, it's not so bad." She pulled a comb out of her bag to neaten her windswept hair before turning and doing the same to Elphaba. She loosened her ponytail, combing out long wisps of hair near Elphaba's temples. Elphaba shut her eyes for the briefest moment, correctly anticipated the now-predictable murmur of, "you have beautiful hair," from her friend, before opening her eyes again.

Galinda's eyes in front of her were suddenly soft.

She felt disoriented, but safe. They were so far away, literally, from their daily lives.

Why did it feel like her time was running out?

When they had sat down and ordered and sobered from the quiet atmosphere inside the restaurant, Elphaba found it hard to meet Galinda's eyes again, for some reason. This was exactly the type of place she had purposefully declined going to with Fiyero.

Galinda blinked innocently. "Are you thinking about him?"

Fiyero? Could Galinda have read -? There was no way.

"Who?" she said, puzzled.

"The Wizard," came Galinda's equally puzzled reply.

Oh.

"Nope," Elphaba said softly, because it was true. She hadn't thought of him since the market, at the very least.

"I'm really sorry, Elphie," Galinda implored, taking her hand over the silky tablecloth. "I can't imagine how much it sucks... "

"Yeah," Elphaba agreed with a sigh. She looked around to her surroundings.

Here she was, in Emerald City, at some posh, sleek little restaurant after a long day of sightseeing. And she _did_ have fun. And _no one_ had looked at her weird. And Galinda was there by her side through it all; planning, choosing, guiding to make everything go right.

The Wizard was the very last thing on her mind.

She tried to gather her thoughts for Galinda's benefit. She had to know.

"I think," Elphaba started slowly, inspecting the hand in hers. She ran her fingers over the smooth varnished nails, painted a faint, creamy yellow to match Galinda's dress. "It would suck more if this year hadn't happened."

"What do you mean?"

"I guess… before I met you, and Fiyero, and the others... that was like my only lifeline. When I was angry, or when I was sad about stuff, that was all I had. His words and his speeches and his books. You know what I mean?"

Galinda nodded faintly, squeezing her hand hard. "You're absolutely right that you don't need him any more," she said plainly.

It simmered between them, what Elphaba had now: real friendship. Real people who would love her and stand up for her. Not a metaphor, not some rhetoric. Their drinks arrived.

"What do you think?" Galinda said finally, taking a long sip out of her glass. "Would you wanna live here?"

Elphaba thought for a moment and wrinkled her nose. "Hmm. It's big, but I wouldn't say _yet_ that it's-"

"Wait til you see the view from the bridge," Galinda interrupted her. "No judgement until then."

So after they were done with dinner (which, Elphaba had to admit, was delicious) they went to bridge. It was a longer walk, followed by a bus ride, that led them out to the other side of the city centre where the parliamentary buildings and towers were. The famous golden-yellow suspension bridge rose high above it all; from Elphaba's view on one end, it seemed to lead straight down from the forest highlands, sweeping past the buildings, across the vast glittering river which split the city in half.

The Emerald City Palace, now-defunct but beautiful, glowed green with spotlights, nestled amongst all the other stately buildings in their backdrop of pitch-black forest.

The skyline was a sight to behold. Galinda, who was sitting on one of the many crowded viewing benches to fix the strap of her shoe, jumped up and joined Elphaba against the railing. "It's gorgeous, right?"

Elphaba nodded. The reflection of the palace in the river kept her eyes glued. She breathed the air deeply - it had cooled since the rain, and it brought a fresh breeze down from the mountain. It flowed comfortingly though the loose strands of her hair. She could hear cars, people, the sounds from the rail station, all in the wind rushing past her ears.

"Galinda," she said to the railing. "Thanks so much for… for bringing me… I had the best day," and she turned to her friend. Galinda looked at her with wide eyes.

Why was it that every time Elphaba expected her to be smug lately, Galinda only regaled her with the most surprised look?

"Not just that, either. I really did mean what I said earlier. Thanks for being my friend."

Galinda heaved a breath, clearly ready to interrupt, but Elphaba held her shoulder to stop her, and continued.

"When I said everything changed this year… I meant I learnt so much from you - from being friends with you…. And from learning what kind of person you really are."

Galinda's voice was tiny when she spoke. "I wouldn't _be_ that person without you, Elphie, I-"

"Oh, shut up," Elphaba said. She didn't know how much of this she could take, the showering of compliments. She would have been glad any other moment to see Galinda admit the way Elphaba might have brought her down to Earth a little, but something more important was pressing. Something urgent, but she couldn't make herself say what. They had just another month to go until graduation.

"It's true," Galinda pressed on. "Remember that time at the cafe? In September, I think?" She laughed but it sounded strange, more like a hiccup. "I completely lashed out at Ari. _That's_ who I'd be without you. Mean."

Elphaba had to hum her agreement just a little bit. "But _I'm_ not a very nice person…"

Galinda made a quick sound of disagreement. "You don't really want to be seen as nice as you actually are," she said, looking right through Elphaba. "But I know you're nice. In here," and she gently pressed the pad of her thumb on Elphaba's chest, just below her collar.

Elphaba grabbed it and held on.

"Then I guess we both learned something," she tried to say lightly.

It was hard not to feel like her time was running out.

The hand clasped in hers remained there, expectant. Elphaba dangled them between their bodies.

"I wish we could be here forever," Galinda sighed. "Just me and you and Emerald City."

Elphaba felt boneless for a split second, and she had to grab the railing next to her with her other hand. Just Galinda being Galinda. Somewhere above, a clock struck. She watched the lights twinkling on the river, squeezed the hand in hers, and felt the contentment bloom in her chest until it threatened to burst.

"Should we head back soon?" Galinda asked quietly.

Elphaba cleared her throat. "Yeah. We should take a selfie here, though."

Galinda coughed in surprise. "Really?"

"Yes," Elphaba said innocently.

Galinda gaped like a fish. Elphaba tried to stifle her smile at that expression.

"What! You were thinking it. I'm just helping you out, Galinda."

Galinda's arms came around her in an excessive squeeze, and Elphaba had to yelp and shout that she was about to drop her phone into the water, but they managed. Galinda didn't really let go after, and Elphaba was far too lost in the day to say something about it.

They caught the second to last train back to Shiz. The minute she hit the seat, Elphaba realised how tired she really was. Next to her, Galinda scrolled lazily through the photos on her phone with one hand, the other still holding onto Elphaba's. Elphaba didn't move. Didn't even breathe too hard.

She was ready to make a beeline for her bed the minute they got out of the station at Shiz, but with a tug of her hand Galinda stopped her.

"Wait, Elphie," she said. She looked tired from the way her shoulders drooped, but her eyes were bright. Elphaba became more alert just looking at her.

"Let's… let's get something to eat. The bar's still open," Galinda said.

Elphaba, who wasn't hungry at all, agreed immediately.

There were a couple of wrapped cakes still left in the fridge behind the counter of the student shop-slash-bar. The guy working, who Galinda knew, started up a conversation with her. He stared unwittingly at their clasped hands, but Galinda still didn't let her go.

The walk to the dorm was the longest and shortest of Elphaba's life.

"It's still warm," Elphaba said suddenly, looking up at the sky. Some unnameable kind of panic was rising in her. "Let's eat out here," and she nudged Galinda's hand to point towards the benches on the strip of lawn outside the building. Galinda hummed her agreement.

They ate in silence. It really had been a while since dinner. But Elphaba could hardly make her hands feed herself the cake, because her thoughts were pressing so hard.

Beyond the main door, past the elevator, and up the stairs - this was her everyday life. This was the threshold. When they crossed it, they wouldn't be in Emerald City anymore. Today, and every rush that came with it, would be in the past.

They would be roommates, like they were every other day of the year.

They went inside. Galinda swept up the stairs, though she kept turning back to check on Elphaba, like they were coming back from the club and Elphaba had been drinking, or something.

Elphaba's chest felt more weary with every step. Her time was running out, and then they reached the landing, and she saw the door, and it had run out.

"Do you have your key - ?" Galinda said, rummaging inside her bag.

This was it. Elphaba pleaded with herself. Say something. Do something. _Say something, you idiot-_

"Elphie?" Galinda said. She must have looked pale, because Galinda's hand came around her face in a gentle movement, her brow dipped with worry.

The awful automatic lights of the hallway flickered on belatedly. Elphaba squinted and adjusted to the light, and saw her friend's face bright and expectant. Galinda's expression was wide open and gentle, something pleading in her eyes, too.

Elphaba leaned into the hand on her face. Her own arms came clumsy and decisive around Galinda's waist, and Galinda's surprised gasp was cut off by her lips before it could even make a sound.

Elphaba kissed her without a clue, and Galinda kissed her back like she had planned it.

The blurriest moment of Elphaba's life had passed, before she found her friend's hands pressed into her cheeks, her radiant face bubbling with laughter so much that she had to pull away.

"Oh," she said, so quietly that Elphaba could hardly make out her tone. "Oh, _Elphie_ ," and that was that. Elphaba felt like she was dissolving right in front of her door. Her face was kissed and cupped and cradled before she knew what was happening, and soon, she found it buried in Galinda's neck, her arms wound tight around her body like an anchor. Galinda gave a gasp that was like a laugh that was like a sob, and Elphaba felt it all against her own body, and she just held on, breathing her hair, her perfume and her skin more deliberately than she had ever done.

Galinda was blinking hard despite her tentative smile when she pulled back this time. She sounded faint. "You - ? Really?"

"What are you talking about?" Elphaba breathed, because there was nothing else she could do, faced with that lovely face. Her head was still spinning.

"Nothing," Galinda said, and smiled harder. A hand reached to push Elphaba's stray hair behind her ear, feather light.

Her voice was too rough and wobbling when she found it. "Okay," she said stupidly. "Are we going inside?"

Galinda giggled. Elphaba watched her pull herself away for a fraction of a second to get her key in the lock before she was back, drawing Elphaba inside with a hand on her waist.

The shabby, ugly little room looked terribly comfortable, considering who was leading her inside. Elphaba almost laughed at her own train of thought.

"You can go use the bathroom first," Galinda said. But the arms around her didn't let loose one bit. A giggle erupted from Galinda's chest right into hers.

She held on fast, no intention of going anywhere at all.


	13. Epilogue

When Galinda wakes up, it's because the room is bathed in sunlight, glowing pink and orange under her eyelids. She's startled for a long moment before she remembers that yes - it's _supposed_ to be that way. The curtains have gone. Maintenance came to strip them off last night, along with the chair covers and bath mat, for cleaning. Apparently, they can't wait another day to start clearing out these rooms - no doubt to milk whatever they can out of renting it to summer school students as soon as they vacate.

It's her very last day in Shiz. Finally.

She glances over to the bed next to her, the long sleeping figure and the elbow poking out of the sheets. Elphie's back is to her. Galinda watches it rise and fall with her steady breathing, darker than usual against the white sheets, and greener in the bright sunlight. Galinda's own slippers lie haphazardly at the foot of the bed. She hadn't bothered to put them back on when climbing into her own bed in the middle of the night.

Galinda snorts to herself. They can't even _sit_ comfortably together on these tiny beds, let alone stay the night together.

Good riddance. She'll be happy to be out into Emerald City tonight. She had scoured the student websites and found a little apartment on the outskirts of Emerald City just last week. As shiny as it was in the pictures, with Daddy's help, she'll be able to move in right away and keep it going for the couple of months before her internship starts.

It didn't take much convincing to make Elphie agree to stay with her this summer.

She rubs the sleep out of her eyes and lets them adjust to the light. All right. Pack, eat, get dressed; that's the whole plan for the day. She takes another glance at Elphie's sleeping body. She looks the same as ever, really. Galinda blinks at the image, strange and giddy for no real reason, like every morning of these last few weeks.

When she comes back to the room, a mug of coffee in hand and a cereal bar tucked in the pocket of her silky dressing gown, Elphaba is up, sitting cross-legged on her bed with her laptop.

"We've got... five hours to pack up and be out," she says, squinting at the corner of the screen.

Galinda glides over to peek over her shoulder, taking a long sip out of her mug. Elphie's personal statement is up on the screen. It's the last of her postgrad applications - dear old Shiz itself, Emerald City College, plus a couple of others. There are comments and highlights everywhere. Half of them are her own work - she's offered to help to look over every single one; her experience with tedious applications far outdoes Elphie's.

"Oh, you're still writing those?" Galinda asks.

"Last one. About to submit," Elphaba says, eyes scanning the screen without distraction.

Galinda watches for a minute or two, before planting a kiss into the skinny shoulder in front of her.

She sighs a long-suffering sigh, taking a second to put her mug down and drag her eyes around the room before falling dramatically into her own bed. "Guess I'll get started on my wardrobe."

Two hours later, she has two suitcases full of neatly folded clothes, and a thousand more items flung across her bed, waiting their turn.

Elphie, at last, is up and emptying the contents of her desk drawers into a rucksack. Before Galinda's very eyes, she fills up a shabby suitcase (much more sensibly sized than Galinda's) and two big black plastic bags, and lines them along the foot of her desk. Her desk completely empty too in a matter of minutes.

Hm. That might have been a simpler approach.

Elphie gives her the quickest, tiniest smile when she catches Galinda watching her, before darting her eyes away with a bashful twist of her mouth. Silly girl.

Five hours is nowhere near enough to tidy everything up properly (she really should have started yesterday), and Galinda should definitely be more indignant about the curtain issue, too, but right now, she can't bring herself to care.

"Elphie," she says, her tone loose and playful. "You forgot to put up your hair this morning."

Elphaba makes a small hum of acknowledgement, then agreement, and reached for the hair tie around her wrist.

"No, don't!" Galinda interrupts. "I just love it down like this," she sighs. "You're so beautiful."

"Shut up," is the lightning fast, automatic reply she receives.

Galinda smiles wider and tilts her hand in her chin in mock adoration.

Well. Real adoration.

She has to be honest about it now, Elphie's reaction to any kind of romantic situation would have made the top of her list of things to see from day one. She doesn't know when morbid curiosity morphed into the kind that leaves her stomach twisting. The Fiyero fiasco in the middle there surely hadn't helped.

Suffice it to say, it's more than entertaining that _she's_ the subject here. She springs off the bed and gets to work on her walls, spurred into action by the same delight.

Her timetable and notices and memos come off easily, little pink push pins placed neatly back into their jar. All that's left is the fairy lights. Her mirror is gone in the van she had organised last week, along with her rug and a few bits of furniture all the way from home. She _had_ managed to get by on the little vanity attached to the wardrobe, taking extreme delight in proving wrong Elphie's doubts about that concept.

Galinda ponders how to get at the lights - they're high up above the bed, too far for her desk chair. In the end, she climbs onto all three of her cushions piled onto each other.

Elphaba looks up dubiously at her precarious position from where she's fixing the old zip of her backpack. "Be careful."

"Uh," Galinda says. Half the wire is coiled in her hand, but the string tying one end to the curtain hook just won't give. "Scissors, please," she says, eyeing the pair on her desk, wobbling on her footing on the squishy mattress.

Her roommate is up and on task in a second, but Galinda turns her head just in time to see a devilish smirk flit across Elphie's face.

Before she knows it, the lights, and her hands tangled in them, come rushing down, as Elphaba breaks her balance with one well-aimed tug at her dressing gown.

"Elphie! WHY - !" She screeches - and then she's giggling, because _Elphaba_ is giggling - laughing hard enough to alert the whole damn hallway. Elphaba reaches for Galinda's arm for balance, or to rub it in. She can barely control herself ( _rude_ ) as Galinda pulls her down too with a vicious grab of her t-shirt.

And just like that, Elphie's body is warm and flush against her. The smell of her hair is in Galinda's nose (she makes sure it is) and her arm wraps around her slender waist with little thought.

She brings their faces together with only a startled breath from Elphie.

Elphie kisses with… determination. Her hands lie uselessly next to Galinda's head but her mouth is a marvel. Galinda thrills at her forwardness and her awkwardness. It's perfect. Unladylike. It makes her feel weak down to her bones, and she has to try so consciously to even make her wrist move - to come up to brush away the tendrils of Elphie's hair that are tickling her face.

She winds her hands in them, as best as she can with one arm trapped in a tangle of fairy lights. Elphie's eyes are dark and perfectly unfocused under her long, willowy lashes. She does that peculiar little thing again - averts her eyes and looks down and away.

And Galinda wants terribly to hold her gaze for longer.

She wills life into her arms enough to lift them and cup one hand under Elphie's chin to _make_ her look. Elphaba stubbornly wrinkles her nose at the attention, kissing Galinda's lips again.

The distraction definitely works.

"You've only got two hours, Glinda," she says wryly, but her voice is too roughened for the right effect. Galinda shivers a little.

Sure enough, two hours later, they're out. Elphie is already downstairs handing their keys in to the reception (which is a loose term for a place that's unmanned ninety percent of the time.)

Galinda counts her boxes piled outside the door to be sure. She checks each drawer of her dresser for the final time.

Everything is empty, the place dull, just like she had found it.

But. Still. It's true -

She's actually going to _miss_ this stupid room. Who would have ever thought it?

There's a lot of memories here. Some not-great ones; also the best ones.

She shuts the door and gathers two of the rosy storage boxes in her hands. It's going to be weird to be away from Shiz. She hasn't ever been _herself_ outside of it. It's getting late. She should make towards the elevator.

"Are you coming?"

And there's Elphie, poking head over the top of the staircase, her hands emptied of the bags she had taken down with her.

Galinda blinks back to Earth and nods vibrantly, motioning towards the remaining boxes.

Elphaba nods and flies towards the boxes, her now-braided hair swishing in Galinda's vision.

She stands up with them, smiling a tentative smile, like she doesn't know how to. "See you downstairs," she says shortly, disappearing back into the staircase.

Galinda wants to run after her.

It was never about the room itself.

* * *

 **thanks to everyone that read this fic and left reviews on it through the year! I had a lot of fun writing it (since february!) and I can't believe it's finally done! Please let me know what you think if you're reading this as complete fic too! :) P.S. there is a smutty (but sweet) aftermath of this story over on AO3 - link in my profile.**


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